New Delhi: At around noon on Tuesday, October 13, a team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) personnel reached the house of the 19-year-old Dalit victim of the Hathras brutality and collected samples from the spot where the victim was allegedly cremated by Uttar Pradesh police without the consent or involvement of her family members.
In the afternoon, the victim’s brother, Satyendra, was taken by CBI officials to sign some papers. While family members were initially apprehensive about where and why he was being taken, another relative confirmed to The Wire at night that he had returned and assured everyone there was no need to worry.
On Tuesday, the CBI team also visited the spot in Hathras where the alleged crime had taken place, with the victim’s brother. It directed the local police to cordon off the scene of crime.
Large numbers of police personnel had been deployed in and around the village ahead of the CBI team’s visit.
Also read: ‘Illegally Confined to House by Hathras Admin,’ Victim’s Family Moves Allahabad HC
The teenaged victim had died on September 29 in Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital after having been allegedly gang-raped by four upper caste Thakur men in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras.
After a nationwide uproar, the Adityanath government said the probe would be handed over to the CBI. However, it had been 12 days after the victim’s death when the CBI finally took over the case on Sunday.
Leaders from Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress and other opposition leaders of the state from Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal had staged pitched protests calling out the apathy of the state in the case.
A notification was issued by the Centre on the request of the state government for the CBI to probe the rape, eventual death of the victim and atrocity, including “any attempt, abetment and/or conspiracy, in relation to or in connection with such offence(s) and/or for any other offence committed in the course of the same transaction or arising out of the same facts”.
Also read: Hathras Case: CBI Takes Over Case, Registers FIR
A team was constituted to pursue leads on the case, which was initially registered at the Chandpa Police station in Hathras. The complainant, the victim’s brother, Satyendra, had initially alleged that the main accused, Sandeep, had tried to strangulate his sister in a millet field where she was working with her mother on September 14.
“The complainant had alleged that on September 14, 2020, the accused tried to strangulate his sister in the millet field. The case has been registered by CBI on the request of Uttar Pradesh government and further notification from government of India,” CBI spokesperson R.K. Gaur had said after the registration of the FIR on Sunday.
In a statement on September 22, the victim herself had alleged that she was gang raped by four upper caste men from the same village, namely Sandeep, Ramu, Lavkush and Ravi.
Note: The story has been updated to include information conveyed to The Wire by a relative that the victim’s brother had returned home after the CBI had taken him to an office and that he had himself not been questioned, as had earlier been apprehended.