New Delhi: The Allahabad High Court will be monitoring all the aspects surrounding the ongoing CBI investigation into the Hathras gangrape case, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. The order came after a batch of petitions demanding a court-monitored probe into the alleged gangrape and death of the 19-year-old Dalit girl by four upper-caste men last month.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said that all the aspects of the case, including monitoring of the probe and providing security to the victim’s family as well as the witnesses, would be considered by the high court.
Several activists and lawyers filed pleas in the apex court claiming that a fair trial was not possible in Uttar Pradesh as the probe has allegedly been botched up.
The bench considered the request of Uttar Pradesh government and asked the Allahabad High Court to delete the victim’s name from one of its orders on a PIL pending there.
The Hathras victim died on September 29, a fortnight after the incident, at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital during treatment.
The victim was cremated in the dead of the night near her home on September 30. Her family alleged they were forced by the local police to hurriedly conduct her last rites. Local police officers, however, said the cremation was carried out “as per the wishes of the family”.