Hathras Gangrape: UP Police ‘Forcibly’ Performs Last Rites of Victim at Night Despite Family’s Request to Bring Her Body Home | Earth Indian

New Delhi: The body of the 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died at a Delhi hospital a fortnight after she was gangraped by four upper-caste men in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, was cremated at around 3 AM on Wednesday.

If reports are to be believed, the UP Police forcibly performed the last rites without giving heed to the family’s repeated requests of bringing the body home first.

“It appears that my sister has been cremated; the police are not telling us anything. We begged them to let us bring her body inside the house one last time, but they didn’t listen to us,” The Indian Express quoted the victim’s brother as saying.

A Delhi Police official had also confirmed last night that the victim’s body was taken by the Uttar Pradesh Police from the hospital.

On Tuesday evening, protests erupted at the Safdarjung Hospital after the father and the cousin of the Hathras gangrape victim sat on a dharna before the woman’s body was taken to Uttar Pradesh amid heavy police deployment.

As the news of her death spread, Bhim Army and Congress workers staged protests, demanding justice for the victim.

The Dalit teen was allegedly sexually attacked by four men on September 14. The accused had tried to strangle her to death as she resisted their rape attempt and in the process, she had also ended up biting her tongue and suffering a severe cut on it. The four accused have been arrested.

She was admitted to Aligarh Muslim University’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital and shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on Monday.

By Shivam Urkude || Earth Indian