[Hathras Rape Case]: A Serious Attempt To Cover Up The Incident And Evade Criminal Liability On State Officials, Destruction Of Evidence With Active Connivance By Government Hospital At Aligarh; Fresh PIL In SC Seeks Registration Of Offences Under IPC, SC/ST Act, Against UP Govt Officials And Police

(Judicial Quest News Network)

A fresh PIL is filed in supreme court seeking the registration of penal offences as well as offences under schedule cast and schedule tribes (prevention of atrocities) act against officials concerned.

filed on behalf of activist Chetan Janardhan Kamble through advocate Vipin Nair the inter-alia seeks issuance of directions to register the offences punishable under sections 376, 376-a, 376-b, 376-c, 376-d and 376-e of the Indian penal code. the medical authorities were acting hand in gloves and so also in collusion not only with the accused but with the police as a result of which deliberately did not conduct the Mlc on the first instance and thereafter the sexual assault forensic examination and, therefore, are liable to be booked for offences punishable under sections 201 and 212 of the Indian penal code.

No law and order problem could justify manipulation or destruction

of evidence. No state machinery could be allowed to say that a crime

cannot be investigated properly. The response of the State

government that the cremation was done to avoid a law and order

problem is neither bonafide nor reliable, since there was no threat to

law and order if the body of the victim was handed over to the family of the victim after the post-mortem; the threat as alleged in the intelligence report existed only in reference to the police involvement to cremate the body and was made by the lower caste groups who had concerns about justice for the victim girl. Thus the safer course of action to avoid law and order situation was to hand over the body of the victim to her family, and have no State involvement with her cremation.

The PIL Further avers that It is also in public domain that certain state officials like the District Magistrate of the area were seen openly threatening the family victims. All this clearly indicates a collective effort by the State machinery to coerce and intimidate the witnesses. It also shows the hostility that is being openly meted out to the public at large as could be seen from the facts that the village was completely cut off for two days to the outside world in order to ensure that there is no

transparency.

This is also a shocking act of the authorities that  no examination for rape was conducted either on 14.09.2020 (despite the authorities knowing that the victims dupatta had been stripped off and used to strangle her, her kurta was torn and her undergarments were blood stained), and that no examination for rape was conducted on 19.09.2020 when the victim clearly alleged molestation, and thereafter, the exhibits were sent for analysis by the FSL only on 25.09.2020, categorically demonstrates the malafides and involvement of the state officials

This shows the clear nexus between the State Police and the Accused.

The midnight crenation that followed after the victim succumbed to her injuries was another shocking step taken by the Police officials “Smacks of them being involved in supressing the crime rather then investigating it”. The plea adds.

It is further mentioned that “More shockingly, the protestants against the police brutalities were put under house arrest, and active efforts were taken by the police to ensure that none of them interacted with the media, including cutting of lines of communication and transport to the village.”

The cremation of the girl that took place in a very odd, UP State Government officials claim that it was done in the presence of the family members of the victim in order to prevent any untoward law and order situation, the petitioner says that it is no Défense to take a step leading to destruction of evidence and obstructing a fair investigation.

The plea avers that “It is further respectfully submitted that the manner in which the party respondents coordinated in the cremation of the victim’s body in the

dead of the night intervening between 29-30.09.2020 under the guise of maintaining law and order, amounts to nothing but a criminal conspiracy by the State officials to destroy evidence relating to the said case. It is respectfully submitted that the State has acted with sheer impunity as regards the cremation of a victim of rape/murder, while denying her family the right to even perform last rites on the body of the victim.

The petition is drawn by SD Talekar and Karthik Jayashanker and filed through Advocate Vipin Nair.