Every Possible Fundamental & Human Right Of Victim Was Violated: DCW Chairperson Writes To CJI Seeking HC Monitored Inquiry Into Hathras Gang Rape Case [Read Letter]
Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal, has written a letter to the CJI, urging him to take cognizance of the brutal gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old dalit girl in UP's Hathras district. "Every possible fundamental and human right of the victim was violated," Maliwal said while urging the Court to pass directions for: A High Court monitored investigation...
Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal, has written a letter to the CJI, urging him to take cognizance of the brutal gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old dalit girl in UP's Hathras district.
"Every possible fundamental and human right of the victim was violated," Maliwal said while urging the Court to pass directions for:
- A High Court monitored investigation and trial to ensure strictest and swiftest possible punishment to the accused in this crime
- Immediate suspension and punitive action against all erring police and administrative officials including the senior-most officials who tried to cover-up the incident
- Setting in place definite mechanisms to ensure that no other daughter has to suffer the same fate.
Maliwal has submitted that role of the police and the entire UP Government in this case is a matter of "grave concern".
She has alleged that the victim was gang-raped on September 14 and left to die in the fields with grievous injuries, by four accused. However, despite repeated pleas of the victim's family, the local police failed to register a case of gang-rape or even rape and for 5 days the accused persons roamed around scot-free.
She has claimed that it was only on 22nd September that the victim's statement was recorded and the relevant sections of gang-rape were added in the case and the other accused persons were identified.
In this backdrop she has stated that for days, the administration tried to "pass of the matter as a dispute" between villages and tried to "cover-up" the incident.
She has further claimed that the UP Government showed extreme delay in shifting the victim to Delhi, despite her serious condition from day one.
She said,
"Had immediate action be taken on the pleas of the family and had the victim been shifted to Delhi earlier, we may not have lost another daughter."
Further she has alleged that the victim's family was not allowed to cremate her body but was instead, locked up in their home.
Terming this to be a "gravest of grave violation of the human rights of the victim", Maliwal wrote:
"Millions of young & innocent girls have sacrificed their lives and dignity in our country and yet except momentary outrage, our country fails to act. There has been hardly any favorable change in the condition of women and girls in India and every day, countless women and girls are ravaged and their lives destroyed."
The 19-yr-old victim in this case was allegedly tortured and gang raped by four men on September 14 in UP's Hathras district. It is alleged that the perpetrators cut of the tongue of the victim to ensure that she does not give any statement to the police and repeatedly threatened her family for several days.
She was recovered from the fields in a critical condition and was admitted to a hospital in Aligarh for treatment. On September 28, she was shifted to AIIMS Delhi, where she succumbed to her injuries the next day.
Read Letter