UP’s Hathras Police drawing a lot of scrutiny for covering up rape

A 20 year old woman belonging to Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras died on Tuesday morning in Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital. The woman was brutally raped by a group of people in her village, in Hathras, following which she had to be hospitalised.

The police of Hathras initally just filed an attempted murder case on the accused, and resfused to file a rape case against them, until the victim had given a formal statement about the same, a week from the horrific incident, which was when she was able to speak once again.

After her passing, the Hathras Police had refused to give the body to the victim’s family, despite their repeated requests to cremate her themselves. Women of the village even tried to obstruct the way of the ambulance, in which the victim was being carried, but the Police had forcefully removed the women from the way, and went ahead with cremating the victim’s body.

The victim’s father had said that they had repeatedly requested the Police to handover his daughter’s body so that they could get a last look at her, and bury her themselves, according to their tradition. However, this did not happen, and the Police cremated the victim at 2 AM on Wednesday, when the family of the victim were all at home. The Police has, however, said that they had cremated the victim’s body with the permission of the family members, and even said that they were present at the cremation site. Only the victim’s uncle was present at the site, and no one else was even aware of the cremation in the first place.

It is indeed very inhumane and cruel of the Hathras Police to not let the victim;s family get a last look at her, and to try and cover up this tragic and horrific incident. It is in fact their responsibility to make sure that everyone is aware of the tragedy, so that there is much more awareness, but trying to cover up such a tragedy is monstrous and downright ridiculous for the Police department.

The woman had suffered multiple fractures, paralysis and a deep gash in her tongue, in the assault. Such a horrific incident last took place in the 2012 Nirbhaya case. The four men responsible for the assault are now in jail, and are expected to be charged with death penalty very soon.