Hathras rape victim’s body forcibly taken away for cremation by UP police, alleges family

The family of 19-year-old Dalit woman fro Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, who died in a Delhi hospital of injuries sustained when she was gang-raped, has alleged that she was forcibly creamted.

The family claimed that the woman’s body was taken away by the police in the middle of the night for final rites.

“The police have forcibly taken the dead body, and my father along with them for cremation. When my father reached Hathras, he was immediately taken (to the crematorium) by the police,” the woman’s brother told news agency PTI.

The police, meanwhile, said that the cremation of the woman was carried out “as per the wishes of the family”, according to PTI.

Also read | ‘We hoped she will survive’: Unease shrouds Hathras rape victim’s village

She was raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras village by four men on September 14 and died a fortnight later after battling serious injuries. The woman was first taken to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Aligarh, but shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi after her condition deteriorated.

She was in a critical condition and on ventilator support.

The brutality against the teenager has sparked outrage across the country with several political leaders, Bollywood actors and activists demanding justice for her.

The case has drawn parallels with the gang rape of a 23-year-old student in Delhi, who was attacked on a moving bus and left to die on a roadside in 2012.

“A Dalit girl who was a victim of demoniac behaviour in Hathras has passed away at Safdarjung Hospital. For two weeks, she kept struggling between life and death in hospitals,” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi said on Twitter. She added that incidents of rape in Hathras, Shahjahanpur, and Gorakhpur had shaken the state.

Also read: Outrage, stir after Hathras rape victim’s death

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the guilty be tried and hanged at the earliest. “The death of Hathras victim is shameful for the entire society, country as well as for all the governments. It is highly sad that so many daughters are being sexually assaulted and we have not been able to protect them,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

The four people accused of raping the woman have been arrested.

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