The Supreme Court on Tuesday will deliver its order in the Hathras case in which a 19-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped and murdered. Tuesday's decision of the top court will relate to monitoring the CBI investigations and shifting of trial to Delhi. It will also deal with safety of family and witnesses, besides legal assistance. The order is expected to announced around 12 pm.
Few days agp, a senior officer of the CBI visited Hathras to take stock of the progress made in the case of the alleged rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman on September 14, officials said. Joint Director Sampat Meena, who had supervised the probe in the Unnao rape case involving the then BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar which led to his conviction, visited the Hathras camp office of the agency, they said.
She met the officers there and took note of the progress made in the case. She also visited the crime scene, they said.
The CBI had registered the case on a reference from the Uttar Pradesh government and immediately dispatched a team from its Ghaziabad unit to probe the case, they said. The team has set up a camp office in Hathras and visited the crime scene, met the family of the victim and interrogated four accused in Aligarh prison.
The CBI officials had also met doctors at the Jawaharlal Nehru hospital in Aligarh where the victim treated before being shifted to Delhi, they said. The victim had succumbed to injuries during her treatment at Safdarjung hospital in Delhi on September 29.
The district administration had allegedly forcibly cremated the body at the dead of the night, denying the family permission to carry it home for proper last rites. The alleged insensitive attitude of the administration had invited some sharp remarks from the Allahabad High Court.
The issue snowballed into a major embarrassment for the Yogi Adityanath government as several parties including the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal staged protests.
The BJP government had transferred the case to the CBI after the controversy. The CBI constituted a team which has already recorded the statements of family members of the victim.
The officer concerned of the Uttar Pradesh Police had registered a case of attempt to murder on a statement by the brother of the victim who, as per the FIR at Chandpa Police Station, had said that the accused tried to strangulate his sister in a field and escaped when she raised an alarm.
The Casualty Medical Officer of the Aligarh Hospital in an interview had reportedly rubbished the theory of Uttar Pradesh Police that there was no rape claiming that samples sent to FSL were taken 11 days after the alleged incident.
The notification issued by the Centre on the request of the state government had asked the CBI to probe rape, murder and atrocity and "any attempt, abetment and/or conspiracy in relation to or in connection with such offence(s) and/or for any other offence committed In the course of the same transaction or arising out of the same facts".