47 Lady Advocates Writes to CJI Demanding to Constitute High Court Monitored Investigation and Trial In Hathras Gang Rape Case

(Judicial Quest News Network)

47 Lady Advocates of the Country have sought for constitution of a High Court monitored investigation and trial to ensure strictest and swiftest possible punishment to the accuse in the Hatras gang-rape case.

In al letter addressed to the CJI and his companion judges of the Collegium.

The letter prays for immediate inquiry and suspension or any punitive action against all erring police, administrative, and even medical officers, who may have tried to manipulate the facts and evidence in the case.

It is further submitted that setting up of adequate institutional mechanism and guidelines so that on other victim or their family feel lost when it comes to the law and order situation in our country, and suffer the same fate.

Urging for immediate intervention by the top court, the letter reads,

“We are writing to you out of much anguish and distress over the manner and procedure in which situation has been progressing with respect to the tragedy that struck a 19-year-old Dalit girl from Hatras, U.P.

                                              – (Letter to CJI and his Companion Judges)

Mentioning the series of incidents, it draws focus on the police response to the situation.

“The Delhi police and UP police took the victim’s family in their car to Hathras at about 9.30 pm from Delhi Safdurjung hospital…The body was also taken in an ambulance at the same time… Later, the family was dropped at their home. However, the ambulance in which the body was kept was never taken to the home and instead directly taken to the cremation ground…The residents, villagers and relatives of the victim resisted the body being directly taken to the cremation ground. They requested the police to allow the body to be taken to her home… The police then forcefully took the body to the cremation ground. It all happened under the supervision of the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police. The family has also alleged that they were beaten up for resisting the cremation. And that’s why the family said they locked themselves up in their house. At about 2.45 am the body was cremated without the consent of the family.”

Citing various reports appeared in print as well as electronic media the letter mentions that the brother of the victim and other relatives wanted to take the body home and do the cremation in the morning, but the police forced them to take the dead body to cremation ground, the article contains the videos where police can be seen forming a human chain to keep the media and the women’s family from entering the cremation ground.

It is also submitted that after September29 2020, when the victim succumbed to her injuries at Safdarjung Hospital, the actions of the police officials seem unfathomable and raise many questions which intertwine between our rule of law and our nation’s humanity, states the letter.

The letter further contends that “It is well settled that the question whether it is obligatory for the police to register FIR on information given by an informant has been answered in the affirmative by the five-member bench of Hon’ble the Supreme Court of India in Lalita Kumari v. Govt. of U.P.9 It has been categorically ruled that the provisions of Section 154(1) CrPC is mandatory and the officer concerned is duty bound to register the case on the basis of information disclosing commission of cognizable offence.

Furthermore, the victim should have been taken for medical examination immediately and an MLC would have clearly stated all the injuries on the person of the victim, which then could have been directed the sections to be added in the FIR and guided further investigation. However, in the present case the ambiguity as to whether or not there was sexual assault, does not seem to inspire confidence.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013, lays emphasis on examination as well as treatment, both physical and psychological, in addition to mere evidence collection. As per MOHFW guidelines, it is mandatory for a doctor to inform jurisdictional police (local police station) regarding the case of sexual violence, unless the survivor does not give consent, in which case such fact is written on the MLC by the examining doctor. Furthermore, explanation 2 to section 375 of IPC states that if someone does not resist sexual violence, that alone cannot be construed as offering consent to the sexual act. This clearly indicates that presence of resistance injuries is not required to prove a case of sexual violence, which again brings into question the weightage being given by the police officers for waiting for forensic report.

Yesterday a petition has been filed in Supreme Court praying for investigation in the Hatras gang-rape case to be conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)or a special Investigation Team (SIT) Monitored by a sitting or a retired Supreme Court or High Court Judge.

The Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) has also written to Chief Justice of India and Other Judges of the Supreme Court requesting them to take cognizance of the gruesome gang-rape and murder.