Hathras Gang Rape & Murder Case: UP Court Acquits Three Accused, Holds One Guilty

The main accused Sandeep has been convicted by the court for the offences of Culpable Homicide not amounting to Murder under the Indian Penal Code (Section 304) and for offences under the SC-ST Act. 

The other three accused – Ravi (35), Luv Kush (23), and Ramu (26) – faced the trial in the case, and have been acquitted of the charges. In its chargesheet, the CBI had accused them of committing offences under IPC sections 376 (rape), 376 (D) (gangrape), 302 (murder) and other offences of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

However, none of the four accused has been found guilty of offence of Gangrape, or Murder by the Special Court.

#JustIn | [Hathras Gang Rape and Murder Case]

UP Court acquits three accused, finds one guilty. Sentence to be pronounced shortly.#HathrasCase #Hathras pic.twitter.com/7DshuOaWmy

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) March 2, 2023

The victim was allegedly abducted and gang raped by four men in UP's Hathras district on September 14, 2020 and she was subjected to brutal torture by breaking her bones and cutting off her tongue.

She passed away on 29 September 2020 and was cremated by police officials (allegedly at the directions of Hathras DM) in the middle of the night without the consent of her family.

Calling the act of hurried cremation an "extremely sensitive" matter, touching upon the basic human/ fundamental rights of the citizens, the Allahabad High Court had taken suo moto cognizance of the entire episode in October 2020.

“The State must respect a dead person by allowing the body of person to be treated with dignity and unless it is required for the purposes of establishing a crime to ascertain the cause of death and be subjected to postmortem or for any scientific investigation, medical education or to save the life of another person in accordance with law, the preservation of the dead body and disposal in accordance with human dignity,” the Court had said.

Dissatisfied with the reasons given by the UP administration for the hasty cremation of the victim, the Allahabad High Court, on October 2020, expressed its displeasure on the entire incident and deprecated the local authorities for violating the victim and her family's human and fundamental rights.

"India is a country which follows the religion of humanity, where each one of us are supposed to respect each other in life and in death. However, the above facts and circumstances, as of now, ex facie, reveal that the decision to cremate the victim in the night without handing over the body to the family members or their consent was taken jointly by the administration at the local level and was implemented on the orders of the District Magistrate, Hathras. This action of the State Authorities, though in the name of law and order situation, is prima facie an infringement upon the human rights of the victim and her family," the Bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Rajan Roy had observed.

The probe in the case was transferred to the CBI in October 2020. CBI filed the chargesheet against all four accused in December 2020.