Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police HC Awasthi
The decision to cremate the 19-year-old gangrape victim in the dead night was taken by local administration i.e., Hathras DM and SP and no order came from Lucknow regarding the last rites, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police HC Awasthi said on Saturday.
However, Awasthi refused to comment on why the permission was not taken by the victim's family to cremate the body in dead of night. The Yogi Adityanath government and UP Police are facing allegations by the opposition and left parties that permission was not sought from the family members of the victim of Hathras case before performing her last rites.
The nationwide outrage against the gangrape and murder case of Hathras victim intensified after she was cremated in the middle of the night by the local police. The family members claiming that police ignored their pleas to bring the body home one last time.
The 19-year-old Dalit woman was gangraped in a brutal assault on September 14 and after a fortnight she died at Delhi's Safdarjung hospital.
