hathras gang rape

Anti-Caste Activists Condemn Verdict in Hathras Rape Case, Demand UP Govt to Appeal in HC

A UP special court had recently acquitted three of the four accused, who belong to the powerful Thakur caste. None of the accused have been found guilty of gang rape.

New Delhi: Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi-Vimukta (DBAV) activists have condemned the judgment of an Uttar Pradesh special court which acquitted three of the four accused in the Hathras gang rape and murder of September 2020. None of the accused have been found guilty of gang rape.

A statement issued by the group of activists demanded the Uttar Pradesh government to appeal the verdict in the high court without delay for a fair trial. While the victim was a 19-year-old Valmiki (oppressed caste) woman, the accused were all dominant caste Thakur men. The activists sought an inquiry against the district magistrate and the superintendent of police allegedly involved in the “foundational miscarriage of justice”.

“The judgment comes merely days before International Women’s Day, but there is nothing for us oppressed caste women to celebrate on this day, we are instead routinely reminded that our womanhood will not be respected in this caste-ridden society. This is also a bitter reminder for all of us fighting for social justice and equality,” the statement said.

The verdict delivered by the special court on March 3 convicted only one of the four accused, Sandeep, of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. None of the accused have been found guilty of gang rape.

The gang rape and the eventual death of the teenager while undergoing treatment in Delhi and the Uttar Pradesh Police’s hurried cremation of her body – during which they allegedly did not allow members of her family to be present – had led to a nationwide stir. The men accused of the crime were ‘upper’ caste Thakurs, leading many to question years of caste injustice.

Questioning the verdict, the activists said, “This is despite the dying declaration of the victim where she clearly named some of the accused of zabardasti i.e. forcibly sexually violating her. The entire process has been marred by injustices and is steeped in Brahminical patriarchy.”

The statement drew parallels between the Hathras case and the Khairlanji case where the three accused were acquitted by the court on the charge of sexual violence and under the Atrocities Act. The activists said the court had refused to invoke the SC/ST Act and held that the murder was based on revenge and the caste was not at work.

“There has been a consistent and systematic miscarriage of justice in cases of caste-based sexual violence for the whittling down of the Atrocities Act. This can be evidenced from the NCRB [National Crime Records Bureau] report which has consistently shown that atrocities against Dalits have been on the rise in recent years,” the statement said.

Speaking about the “incessant violence” against Dalits and other marginalised communities, the statement said, “Like in every caste-based sexual atrocity, this judgment reveals the depth and the scale of the systemic oppressor-caste hatred and disregard towards Dalits and their human rights. This depraved indifference has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, so much so that it amounts to an ongoing genocide.”

The activists said targeted caste-based sexual violence has a long oppressive history, starting from the religiously sanctified and undignified traditions of Devdasi, Breast tax, exoticizing paintings of tribal women’s bodies for oppressors’ gaze, and amusement, to stripping and naked parading assertive DBAV women.

“To us, it is evident how justice is delayed and denied to the oppressed caste women, with the long list of cases of violent atrocities of Mathura, Bhanwari Devi and Khairlanji. In all these cases the oppressed caste women have not been viewed as ‘ideal victims’ deserving of justice,” the statement said.

‘I Was Targeted Because I am a Muslim’: Siddique Kappan Recounts His Harrowing Time in Jail

The Malayalam language journalist, who spent 28 months in jail, said he was not even allowed to use a toilet for five days straight.

New Delhi: Journalist Siddique Kappan, who breathed freedom after being in jail for 28 months, told The Wire that he was “targeted” only because he is a Muslim.

Out on bail, the Malayalam language journalist narrated the harrowing experience he had been subjected to in jail. He contracted COVID-19 twice when he was imprisoned.

Recounting his experience in the prison hospital, he said he was called a “terrorist” and was told that he would be treated as one by an official there.

He added that he was handcuffed to the hospital bed and was not even allowed to use the toilet for five days straight, forcing him to relieve himself in a bottle. Then his lawyer appealed in the Supreme Court.

Kappan said he was “targeted” only because he had raised his voice against media censorship under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. “In the process, news portals, supportive of Hindutva politics, called me the mastermind of Delhi riots,” he alleged.

According to him, the government and the Hindutva brigade felt that it was a “perfect distraction” from the gang rape of a Dalit woman in Hathras, which received severe backlash against the BJP and the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh.

“It was easy for them to blame me as a ‘terrorist’, because I am Siddique Kappan, a Muslim,” he said.

Kappan recalled that he used to write letters to his family from jail. He said he was worried for his children, especially his 19-year-old son. “I am worried my son would be called a ‘son of terrorist’. I don’t want my children’s image being tarnished like this.”

Asked whether he would take up and continue journalism given that he had to go through such an ordeal in jail, Kappan said he would not back off from journalism even if it meant harassment.

However, he lamented that a section of Hindi journalists in Delhi called him a “kathit patrakar (an alleged journalist)”. He said he had never been shamed as such before in his long career as a journalist.

He was arrested in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras from Delhi to report on the gang-rape case, where a Dalit teenager was allegedly gang-raped and injured by four ‘upper’ caste men. The young girl died eventually.

Kappan was booked under Sections 124A (sedition), 153A (for promoting enmity between groups) and 295A (outraging religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 14 and 17 of UAPA, Sections 65, 72 and 76 of the Information Technology Act.

Edited by Vikram Mukka.

Anti-CAA, Hathras, Hijab Outrage: How the Heat Was Turned Up on PFI Recently

Over the past few years, the PFI has increasingly been accused of being involved in alleged conspiracies behind protests and civil unrest.

New Delhi: On Thursday, September 22, of coordinated and nation-wide raids were conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate to crack down on suspected terror funding rings – primarily targeting the Popular Front of India.

Described by the central agencies as the “largest ever” such crackdown, the raids spanned numerous locations across 11 states and involved their respective police forces too.

Besides terror funding, the agencies claim that the suspects were also allegedly involved in organising training camps for terrorists as well as radicalising individuals to join their organisation.

The raids have, so far, resulted in the arrests of 106 leaders of the PFI. Four of these leaders have reportedly been charged under the stringent anti-terror legislation, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

In the recent past, the heat on the PFI has intensified, with not just government agencies and law enforcement targeting it but also a Sufi body calling for its banning.

Formed in Kerala in 2006, the PFI claims to be an organisation which works for the empowerment of marginalised communities in India. It is not yet banned in India.

Section 35 of the UAPA lists out 39 banned terrorist organisations, accessible on the Union Home Ministry website. Besides global terrorist organisations like the Islamic State (IS) and its various offshoots, the list includes islamis-extremist organisations in India, such as Lashkar-E-Taiba and Jaish-E-Mohammed, Sikh separatist organisations, such as the Khalistan Commando Force, and even the revolutionary outfit in Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Despite allegations of its involvement in a number of protests, charges of conspiracy and money laundering, and the arrests of its leaders, the PFI does not feature on this list.

In July this year, The Wire had reported that leaders of the All India Sufi Sajjadanashin Council (AISSC), at an interfaith conference in Delhi, had proposed a resolution advocating for a ban on the PFI and similar organisations for indulging in “anti-national activities”.

Anti-CAA protests

During the movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in late 2019-early 2020, the Uttar Pradesh police had alleged that the PFI had orchestrated the protests in the state and had, at the time, arrested the organisation’s state head as well as some 25 members.

Delhi riots

Thereafter, the ED had levelled charges of money laundering against the PFI in the aftermath of the Northeast Delhi riots in 2020, claiming that the protests were funded by the organisation, and two members were also arrested by the Delhi police.

Hathras ‘conspiracy’

Further, in the aftermath of the gangrape and murder of a woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras in 2020, the state police had arrested journalist Siddique Kappan for his alleged “deep links” to the PFI. Claims of Kappan’s links to the organisation have been contested by his friends and family.

Before he was given bail in the UAPA case against him, the Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court in an affidavit, that he had a “close nexus with the top leadership of PFI/CFI (which is basically formed of ex-SIMI members), who in turn have been found to have connections with Al Qaeda linked organisations like IHH in Turkey”.

Last year, the ED had claimed that the PFI wanted to “incite communal riots and spread terror” in the aftermath of the Hathras incident. Its charge-sheet had named Kappan, along with others.

Hijab

The Karnataka government recently told the Supreme Court that the PFI was to blame for the outrage against the government’s hijab ban in educational institutions. It claimed this was part of a “larger conspiracy”.

Insisting that the agitation in support of wearing hijab in educational institutions was not a “spontaneous act” by a few individuals, it said the state government would have been “guilty of dereliction of constitutional duty” if it had not acted the way it did.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Karnataka, told the court the PFI started a campaign on social media which was designed to create an agitation based on “religious feelings of the people”.

Mehta told a bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia the PFI started the social media campaign over the Islamic headscarf earlier this year and there were continuous social media messages asking students to “start wearing hijab”.

Leader’s arrest in Kerala

The Palakkad district secretary of PFI, Aboobaker Siddik, was arrested recently for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to kill RSS leader S. K. Srinivasan on April 16 this year.

He was also allegedly part of a group of PFI activists who had prepared the list of leaders of various political organisations including the BJP, CPI(M) and Youth League, the youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), to be targeted in their retaliatory attacks, a police officer claimed to the news agency PTI.

‘Anti-India activities’

The Bihar Police in July this year said it had arrested three members of the PFI and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) in Patna and seized a seven-page document on an alleged plan to “establish rule of Islam in India by 2047” from them.

According to a report on The Hindu, the document, marked as “internal document, not for circulation”, said, “2047 CE is not a watershed in history, but signifies the end of the century of Independent India and the beginning of a new one pregnant with changes, positive and negative, cataclysmic or otherwise. We dream of a 2047 where the political power has returned to the Muslim community from whom it was unjustly taken away by the British Raj”.

Assistant Superintendent of Police, Phulwari Sharief, Manish Kumar told The Hindu that the suspects were arrested for “anti-India activities”.

(With PTI inputs)

Watch | One Year After Hathras Gang Rape, Family of Victim Still Living in Fear

On September 29, a National Convention was held at the Constitution Club to demand justice for her family.

It has been one year since the Hathras victim died after reporting that her upper-caste neighbours had gang-raped and brutally assaulted her. On September 29, a National Convention was held at the Constitution Club to demand justice for her family.

Allahabad HC Will Consider Shifting Hathras Gang-Rape Hearing Based on Family’s Complaints

In an affidavit, the woman’s brother alleged that the family and lawyers were intimidated during the March 5 hearing at the Hathras court.

New Delhi: Responding to an affidavit filed by the brother of the 20-year-old Hathras gang-rape and murder victim, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Saturday said that it will consider shifting the trial out of the western UP district. The woman’s brother had alleged earlier this month that his family and their lawyers were receiving threats during the hearing at the Hathras trial court.

In his affidavit, the woman’s brother alleged that the family and lawyers were intimidated during the March 5 hearing at the Hathras court. The victim’s brother had alleged that the presiding judge of the Hathras district court, where the trial is currently going on, was forced to stop the proceedings on March 5 after “an advocate named Tarun Hari Sharma (under the influence of alcohol), stormed into the courtroom and charged towards the applicant and the complainant counsel, shouting and issuing threats”.

NDTV reported that a two-judge bench of the high court asked for a report of the alleged incident at the Hathras court, and that it will take a decision on shifting the case out of western UP after looking at the report. The bench also said that the CBI also had shown an inclination to file an application to transfer the trial from “District Hathras to elsewhere, within the State”.

In its order, the bench also described in detail about the content of the affidavit, which points at imminent threats to Seema Khushwaha, the lead counsel for the victim’s family. Khushwaha has been unable to appear at the Hathras court ever since the incident happened.

Also read: Hathras Gang-Rape and Murder Case: A Timeline

The victim’s brother also said in his affidavit that “a large mob, including lawyers, entered the courtroom and surrounded the applicant and the complainant’s counsel in order to threaten and intimidate them”.

The Allahabad high court on April 7 had asked the Hathras district judge to ensure that the trial was conducted in a free and fair manner without any “outside hindrance”.

The Dalit woman was allegedly raped by four men belonging to the Thakur community on September 14, following which she died at a Delhi hospital. The controversy was further exacerbated when UP police personnel cremated her in the middle of the night on September 30, allegedly without the consent of her family, although the UP government officials maintain that her cremation was done “as per the wishes of the family”.

The four accused have been arrested by the CBI.

Hathras Gang-Rape and Murder Case: A Timeline

The Supreme Court has said that the Allahabad high court can monitor the Central Bureau of Investigation probe in the case.

New Delhi: It has nearly 1.5 months since a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped and brutalised in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, and a month since she succumbed to her injuries in a Delhi hospital.

Throughout this period, actions of the Uttar Pradesh police and administration have come under question, with the victim’s family, civil society activists and others alleging that they are trying to protect the Thakur accused. On Tuesday (October 27), the Supreme Court has said that the Allahabad high court can monitor the Central Bureau of Investigation probe in the case.

September 14

Incident

At around 9:30 am, the victim and her mother went to work in the fields of Boolgarhi village, Hathras district. They were working in the fields of Thakur villagers. The family would often go to these fields to collect grass for their cattle.

The mother, about 100 metres away from the daughter, heard her screaming and rushed to find her. When she found her, she saw her lying on the ground covered in blood, with her tongue cut off. She immediately covered the victim’s body and called her son, who reached the spot on his bike. They then took the victim to the nearest police station – Chandpa police station.

Police

An hour later, the victim, her mother and brother reached the police station. The family alleges that the police significantly delayed registering an FIR and also told them to take the victim away. The victim’s brother says that Sandeep, one of the accused, attempted to kill her. The victim at this time was slipping in and out of consciousness. An FIR was filed against accused Sandeep under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code.

The videos that were later circulated on social media showed the victim telling the police, “Gala daba diya (They strangled me).” Asked why, she said, “Zabardasti na karne de rahi taiku (Because I did not let them force me).”

Hospital

The police then took the victim to a district hospital, where the doctor referred her to the AMU JNMC Hospital saying that the local clinic does not have the facilities to treat her, as she was in a serious condition.

The victim was then officially admitted to the JNMC Hospital in Aligarh, where she was admitted for a period of 14 days. Over the next week, the victim’s condition worsened.

Watch: As UP Govt Claims Conversion Story a Lie, Dalits of Kareha Explain Why They’ve Embraced Buddhism

September 19

The victim’s statement was recorded at the JNMC Hospital, in which she mentioned molestation and named two attackers including the main accused Sandeep. On basis of this statement, Sections 307 and 354 of the IPC were added and Sandeep was arrested.

September 22

The victim’s dying declaration before the district magistrate was recorded at JNMC Hospital. In this statement, she named the other three accused – Luvkush, Ravi and Ramu – accusing them of sexual assault. On the basis of this, the police filed cases against all the accused under charges of gang-rape and attempt to murder. The three were arrested within the next few days. This became the last available statement of the victim.

The medico-legal examination done at the hospital on this day mentions “use of force”. However, opinion regarding penetrative intercourse was reserved pending the availability of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report.

September 28

The victim’s condition got critical and she was referred to AIIMS. However, she was taken instead to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi for treatment.

September 29

The victim succumbed to her injuries on the morning of September 29. Following her death, a protest erupted inside Safdarjung Hospital. Members of the Congress party as well as the Bhim Army headed by Chandrashekhar Azad were part of this dharna, demanding strict punishment of the accused. The family had also alleged that the police were trying to secretly dispose of the victim’s body. After a day-long protest, the victim’s body as well as the father and brother were taken back to Boolgarhi village.

September 30

At around 2:30 am, the police forcefully cremated the victim without the consent of her family, the mother of the victim alleged. After the cremation was done, the case started gaining nationwide momentum, with people demanding justice for the victim and questioning the UP government and administration’s intentions.

The UP government set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the case. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath asking him to ensure speedier justice. Initially given seven days to probe the Hathras case, a 10-day extension was given for the final report. The last date to submit the report was October 17, but the report has still not been submitted.

Adityanath spoke to the family members of the victim via video conferencing. The state government announced ex-gratia compensation of Rs 25 lakh, a house and a government job to kin of the deceased.

Family members and relatives mourn the death of a 19-year-old woman, who was gang-raped, in Hathras district, Tuesday, September 29, 2020. Photo: PTI

October 1

Amid growing tensions, Section 144 of the CrPC was imposed in the Boolgarhi village ahead of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s scheduled visit to meet the victim’s family. All entry points of the village were sealed and the media was barred from entering. According to the victim’s brother, the family was under the strict surveillance of the UP police who had surrounded the house in huge numbers.

Rahul and Priyanka’s convoy was stopped at the UP-Delhi border, citing the imposition of Section 144 in Hathras. They then decided to cover a distance of over 100 km on foot, but were repeatedly stopped by the UP police on the Yamuna Expressway. They were later detained and escorted back to Delhi.

UP additional director general of police (law and order) Prashant Kumar said the FSL report reveal that the 19-year-old victim, was not raped. ANI, quoted him as saying, “No semen has been found in the forensic report. The FSL report has already clarified that there was no rape on the victim.” Experts disputed this claim saying the samples were taken 11 days after the assault.

The post-mortem report came out the same day and revealed more details. The woman suffered a fracture in her neck as a result of repeated strangulation. The report mentioned injury to her cervical spine (neck) produced by “indirect blunt trauma, and its resultant sequelae”. It further said that the ligature mark over the neck is consistent with attempted strangulation but did not contribute to death in the case.

The Allahabad high court took suo moto cognisance of the matter, expressing its displeasure over the matter and the victim’s forcible cremation.

Also read: No FIR 2 Weeks After Minor’s Death at Employer’s House, Family ‘Beaten’ by Cops for Protesting

October 3

Rahul and Priyanka were finally allowed to visit the victim’s family. Permission had been given to the two Congress leaders along with three other representatives of the party. Relaxations were made to allow the media to enter the village.

Over the next few days, a Samajwadi Party delegation, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) vice-president Jayant Chaudhary and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekar Azaad visited the victim’s house, assuring them of all help. Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka also met with the victim’s family and continued their attack on the UP government. Yogi Adityanath recommended a CBI probe into the case the same day, but it was officially only taken over by the CBI a week later.

October 5

Hundreds of people, including family members of the four accused, gathered outside former Hathras MLA and BJP leader Rajveer Pahalwan’s house on Sunday to demand ‘justice for the four accused’.

October 6

The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday filed an affidavit at the Supreme Court on the Hathras case, justifying the state police’s decision to cremate the body of the victim at 2:30 am “to avoid large-scale violence” the next morning. The UP government also said that the decision was taken on the basis of intelligence inputs.

Police personnel stand guard near Boolgarhi village following outrage over death of the 19-year-old Dalit woman who was gang-raped, in Hathras district, Saturday, October 3, 2020. Photo: PTI

October 8

One of the accused, Sandeep, wrote a letter to the UP police, in which he claimed that he was “friends” with the victim. He also claimed that he and the three other accused are being framed in the case and sought “justice” for the four men. He also accused the woman’s mother and brother of torturing her, indicating at the possibility of it being a case of “honour killing”. “Apart from meeting, we used to speak on the phone once in a while,” the letter claimed.

The letter emerged amid police claims that there is evidence that the victim’s family knew one of the accused. Call data records between the accused and victim’s brother reportedly showed around 104 calls made between October last year and March this year.

October 11

The Central government has issued a notification for the CBI to take over the probe, after which the CBI registered an FIR and took over the investigation. IPC sections related to gang-grape and murder, as well as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, were invoked. The CBI Ghaziabad unit, with a special team to investigate the crime, was assigned the case.

October 12

The victim’s father, mother and three brothers were brought to the Allahabad high court amid tight security who then appeared before its Lucknow bench, which fixed November 2 as the next date of hearing. The family members were heard by the bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Rajan Roy on Monday. The UP additional chief secretary, DGP and the ADG (Law and Order) also deposed before the court, along with the Hathras DM and SP.

The DM in court reiterated the earlier claim that the decision to cremate the victim’s body at night was taken considering the law and order situation.

Also read: A Murder in Hathras, and a Question for the Country’s Conscience

October 13

A CBI team reached the house of the victim and collected samples from the spot where the victim was cremated by the Uttar Pradesh police without the consent or involvement of her family members.

October 16

The victim’s brother had reportedly demanded that the case and the family both be transferred to Delhi, citing protection and employment opportunities.

October 20

A fact-finding team including Medha Patkar from the NAPM, activist and writer Mani Mala and member of the Socialist Party (India) Sandeep Pandey released a report which said that the crime was a “cumulation of casteist, anti-woman tradition”. The report also noted that as a minority in the village, Dalits had been “experiencing a number of repressive acts and atmosphere over decades”.

October 27

The Allahabad high court was allowed to monitor all aspects of the case including the CBI investigations by the Supreme Court. The apex court, while hearing petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into the case, also said that a request to transfer the trial out of UP “has been left open” until the investigation is completed.

Hathras Case: Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi-Vimukta Womxn Condemn State Complicity, Demand Action

“…the state machinery, made of police personnel, politicians, and government officials, have not only failed to implement the rule of law, but it has also inflicted more violence against the victim’s family.”

New Delhi: A group of women and queer persons from the Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi-Vimukta communities have issued a statement condemning the gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras, and the state government and police’s actions after that appear to shield the accused.

The womxn talk about historical atrocities against marginalised bodies in India, and how the Hathras case is the latest example of this. “Like in every caste-based sexual atrocity, the brutality of the Hathras incident reveals the depth and the scale of oppressor-caste hatred and disregard towards Dalits and their human rights. This depraved indifference has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, so much so that it amounts to genocide,” the statement reads.

The state machinery, in this case, “has also inflicted more violence against the victim’s family”, the womxn argue. Their demands include holding officials responsible for their actions as well as bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Read the full statement and list of demands below.

We, women, and queer persons from Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi-Vimukta communities adhering to Phule-Ambedkarite ideology, strongly condemn the brutal sexual assault on 19-year-old Valmiki woman, by four dominant caste Thakur men, in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh. Along with diverse like-minded groups, living across India and overseas, we are deeply disturbed, saddened, and enraged by the incessant violence perpetrated on our caste-oppressed communities. Like in every caste-based sexual atrocity, the brutality of the Hathras incident reveals the depth and the scale of oppressor-caste hatred and disregard towards Dalits and their human rights. This depraved indifference has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, so much so that it amounts to genocide.

Also read: Are You Aware of Amended Definition of Rape, HC Asks UP Cop Who Denied Hathras Victim Was Raped

This caste-based sexual violence has a long oppressive history, right from the religiously sanctified and undignified tradition of Devdasi, breast tax, exoticising paintings of tribal women’s bodies for oppressors’ gaze, and amusement, to stripping and naked parading assertive DBAV women. Between 2006 and 2016, data suggests that crimes against Dalits were on the rise. Owing to long-standing anti-caste struggle and leaders within this movement, we have constitutional guarantees such as the Untouchability Offences Act (1955) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (1989), which seeks to extend all three forms of justice to Dalits: punitive, preventive, and restorative. But despite the strength of these laws, their efficacies have remained poor, owing to India’s caste impunity culture. This caste impunity is institutionalised in all sectors and government and judicial bodies. People from oppressed castes experience state apathy and outright caste discrimination in their everyday life.

In the case of Hathras, the state machinery, made of police personnel, politicians, and government officials, have not only failed to implement the rule of law, but it has also inflicted more violence against the victim’s family. Several observations point to this:

A significant delay in the police registering the case, delay in collecting samples amounts to tampering with evidence and shows the state and judiciary complacency in denying justice to the victim’s family.
The manipulation of evidence in the case of the victim’s parents’ statement over the cremation of her body and filing of the first information report.
Misleading police statements regarding the post mortem report claimed “no rape” based on the delayed pathology report, despite the woman’s dying declaration.
Threats issued to the family by the DM amounting to intimidation.
Deliberate attempts to derail the efforts of groups protesting against caste-based sexual violence.
Derailing of legal proceedings by the government of Uttar Pradesh to eliminate all possibilities for justice.
Cases filed against Dalit leaders and activists attempting to visit the victim’s family based on violating Sec 144. -No action was taken against Thakur men, who were openly issuing threats to Dalit leaders and had gathered in Hathras in support of the perpetrators.

All of the above shows clear complicity of the state, law enforcement agencies, and dominant castes.

Also read: A Murder in Hathras, and a Question for the Country’s Conscience

We, as women and queer persons, from DBAV communities, remain firm in our demands. We hold the value of social justice close to our lives. We are committed to eliminating all forms of caste and gender-based sexual violence.

We collectively demand the following from the state administration and the police department of Uttar Pradesh in the Hathras case. Going beyond, our demand is also for preventive justice to keep a check on such rampant caste-based atrocities, and restorative justice, to ensure a dignified life for the victims of atrocities and their families.

An independent Special Investigation Team should be set up and monitored by the Supreme Court in the Hathras case.
A senior woman criminal lawyer, preferably from the DBAV community, should be appointed as the Special Public Prosecutor.
As per the family’s demand, the case should be moved out of UP. The state hostility is affecting the family and further victimising them.
Y+ security should be provided to the victim’s family.
All the four Thakur men named in the victim’s statement must be prosecuted under the SC & ST Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) Act.
Police officers and the district magistrate must be proceeded against as per the SC/ST (PoA) Act provisions.
An independent inquiry must be set up against the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of police for their willful neglect of duty, under section 4 of the SC/ST (PoA) Act.
The first information report (FIR) must be immediately registered against all the officials involved in the hasty cremation of the victim’s body, especially those who passed the orders and made elaborate arrangements, including lights, Firewood, tractor, etc. to facilitate the cremation. This is a destruction of crucial scientific evidence.
FIRs must be filed without any delay against members of the upper-caste community, especially the Thakur community, who are creating and sharing threatening videos on social media to undermine Dalits’ demand for justice.
The UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (Ajay Mohan Bisht) must resign for the failure in convening State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee meetings for the last three years, as required under the SC/ST PoA Act.
Section 15 of the SC/ST PoA Act, on the rights of victims, must be implemented to provide the victim’s family with proper and immediate rehabilitation, in addition to substantial compensation.
Security must also be provided to other Dalit families in the village, who might now be soft targets of casteist backlash.
A contingency plan for the rehabilitation of victims in caste-based atrocities in the state of Uttar Pradesh must be implemented immediately.
Rule 16 and Rule 17 of the PoA Rules provide for setting up of the State Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee under the Chairpersonship of the Chief Minister and the District level Vigilance and Monitoring Committees under the Chairpersonship of the District Magistrate to review the implementation of the provisions of the PoA Act. NCDHR status report on the implementation of the SC/ST PoA act suggests that these meetings did not take place in Uttar Pradesh in past years (Annual report NCSC September 2016). This also emerged in the parliamentary proceedings, 25 states, and Uttar Pradesh among these have not conducted the twice a year review meetings for the past three years. Despite reporting the highest number of caste atrocities in India, the state of Uttar Pradesh failed to review the status of caste atrocities to prevent them. We demand the resignation of authorities responsible for failing to implement these state and district level meetings for criminal negligence and indifference towards the atrocities committed against Dalits.
We demand that spaces like fields, homes, and construction sites where the marginalised communities work be included in the sexual harassment at the workplace. This demand emerges from the fact that the sexual-violence against the victim was committed in the field when she was there to gather fodder for the cattle, which incorporates the idea of a workplace.
We demand that the accused be tried and convicted based on the dying declaration of the victim of Hathras caste-based sexual violence victim. We demand justice from the State of Uttar Pradesh and India in the case of Hathras, and preventative justice to keep a check on rampant caste-based atrocities, and restorative justice to ensure a dignified life for the victims and their families through the SC and ST, Prevention of Atrocities Act.
Lastly, there should be a nationwide review of atrocity-prone districts. These districts should be declared as ‘atrocity prone,’ and preventive mechanisms under the SC-ST PoA act should be strictly followed.

Footnote:

We use womxn here to reflect the value of inclusivity and diversity and to foreground transgender, nonbinary, and other marginalised women in our intersectional politics and praxis.
We refrain from giving any name to the victim of caste-based sexual violence in Hathras for ethical reasons to respect and humanise her in her death. We believe this sort of name-giving puts the burden of ‘heroism’ and dehumanises the victim. We would like to ‘say her name’ to visibilise and humanise her but legally it is not possible.
DBAV women, queer and transgender Collective is an autonomous group and made up of three generations of Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi and Vimukta activists, many of us are engaged in national regional, and grassroots activism, many are research scholars, academics, artists, poets, writers, journalists, lawyers, and other professionals. This engagement in anti-caste activism, knowledge production, and praxis spans across five decades. As a group, we strive for horizontal and inclusive collaborations. We acknowledge the strength and challenges our diversity brings and we aim for utmost respect and dignity for members that face multiple marginalities and are the most marginalised even within this space of oppressed communities. Our fight for the annihilation of caste and gender Justice is intersectional, we believe for all oppressed to be free, the most marginalised should be free.

The Wire has the complete list of signatories, but is holding the names back at their request.

Hathras: Centre Issues Notification for CBI Probe

Probe teams will be dispatched to the crime scene along with forensic experts immediately after the registration of an FIR, officials said.

New Delhi: The central government has issued a notification for the CBI to take over the probe into the alleged gang-rape and death of a 19-year-old woman in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Saturday.

The notification has been marked to a suitable branch of the premier agency, and probe teams will be dispatched to the crime scene along with forensic experts immediately after the registration of an FIR, they said.

Also read: Backstory: The Hathras Gangrape and Four Media Challenges

The Dalit woman had died of grievous injuries at a Delhi hospital on September 29, a fortnight after she was allegedly raped at her village by four upper-caste men.

Besides the alleged gang-rape case, the Uttar Pradesh government has sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the FIR related to the alleged criminal conspiracy to spread caste conflict, instigating violence, incidents of vicious propaganda by sections of media and political interests, they said.

Backstory: The Hathras Gangrape and Four Media Challenges

A fortnightly column from The Wire’s public editor.

The coverage of the Boolagarhi gangrape yielded glimpses of what reporters could achieve if given the space and support to do stories untethered by a controlling newsroom. To say this at a time when we float in an amniotic sac of fake news and when cases of powerful television companies taking recourse to fake TRPs have surfaced, may sound rather odd.

But sometimes, unexpectedly, the possibilities of independent journalism surface – as it did in a remarkable verbatim conversation that Tanushree Pandey of India Today conducted with a policeman shortly after a hurried cremation had taken place in Boolagarhi village, a village in UP’s Hathras district (‘In UP, Maintaining ‘Law and Order’ Also Means a Secret, Rushed Cremation of Dalit Rape Victim’, October 1).

Because dead women tell inconvenient tales, the body of the 19-year-old Dalit woman, who had been gangraped by four upper-caste men, was secreted away by UP chief minister Adityanath’s police under the cover of darkness and set alight like backyard refuse. How this reporter had smuggled her way into this crime scene is not clear. But in the darkness of that pre-dawn hour, there was a reporter demanding information from a policeman, a certain Sanjiv Kumar Sharma of the Crime Branch. She asks him repeatedly, “Sir, just tell us what is burning. Did you not just say that this is not the body. If it is not the body, then what is it that is burning. Just say this much…”

Family members and relatives mourn the death of a 19-year-old woman, who was gang-raped two weeks ago, in Hathras district, Tuesday, September 29, 2020. The Dalit teen died at a hospital in Delhi on Tuesday morning. Photo: PTI

The entire might of the state will strive to suppress work of professionals like this, but their eye-witnessing cannot be swallowed up by the murky night sky. It will emerge to tell the truth in the clear light of day, providing the material that will enable constitutional bodies to function according to their mandate. It will allow, for instance, the Allahabad high court to take suo moto cognisance of the gangrape and unconscionable cremation. The court put on record its appreciation of the media: “The newspaper reports and the electronic media programme/video clippings show that the family members kept demanding for the body and also informed the authorities that as per traditions followed by them, cremation cannot take place after sunset and before day break, yet, the District Authorities got the cremation performed, contrary to the traditions which the family followed…The incidents which took place after the death of the victim on 29.09.2020 leading up to her cremation, as alleged, have shocked our conscience, therefore, we are taking suo moto cognizance of the same” (‘Allahabad HC Takes Cognisance of Hathras Case, Strongly Criticises Police Actions’, October 2).

Given the crucial role that the media are required to play in situations of this kind, let me flag four challenges in the coverage of the Boolagarhi gangrape.

Challenge One: State repression and control of information

“In Adityanath’s state, a car can be overturned any time.”

This statement in response to the Hathras events by that master of the epigrammatic, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, references the cold-blooded killing of mafia don Vikas Dubey in July. But it also signals the party’s endorsement and admiration for the UP chief minister’s rough, tough and ugly tactics.

During the Hathras developments, the media discovered how far the CM would go in using these tactics to thwart independent reportage. His toolkit included not just police brutality and blockage of access, it comprised locking up the bereaved family and filing draconian UAPA charges against a journalist who had no previous criminal record or incriminating evidence on him (‘Hathras Case: Malayalam Journalist and Three Others Booked Under Sedition, UAPA’, October 7). Every trick in the book was used; every wing of the government, weaponised (‘UP Creates Curfew-Like Conditions, Bans Protests Against Hathras Gang-Rape and Murder’, October 3) to intimidate and terrorise.

What is a new and disturbing is the way the private conversations of journalists were illegally surveilled and leaked to friendly media platforms which then spun it to favour the government stance (‘Fuelled by Leaked Evidence and Illegal Surveillance, Media Trials is the New Normal in India’, October 10).

Challenge Two: The manufacturing of a fabricated counter-narrative

The extent the Adityanath government was willing to go was also revealed by its hiring of a professional public relations firm, Concept PR, to counter media coverage. The conclusion of the UP police, after a wrong reading of the forensic report, that no rape had taken place, was immediately and widely disseminated by Concept PR, followed by the BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya circulating a video of a conversation with the victim, edited to make it appear that she had said that she had been strangulated.

Apart from the fakeness of this clip, it was a clear violation of the Indian Penal Code that prohibits the identity of the subject being made public. Meanwhile, BJP functionaries were hard at work, spreading this false information across the country, with a BJP Mahila Morcha functionary even tweeting that the sexual assault was “only a fiction of Lutyen media’s imagination.”

All it needed was just one substantive story, like the one The Wire carried, ‘Exclusive: Aligarh Hospital MLC Report on Hathras Victim Shatters UP Police’s ‘No Rape’ Claim’ (October 3), to be take apart this tissue of lies. Similar attempts were made to spin the cremation story, with the false claim made that relatives had presided over the cremation.

We have not seen the end of this vicious, multi-pronged, no-holds-barred strategy to build a counter narrative framing the whole incident as a family feud, a conspiracy against UP and an attempt to instigate caste riots. Journalists will now have to contend with the state’s insidious attempts to discredit their reportage and question their integrity through the use of widely circulated fake information.

Challenge three: Failure to understand the dynamics of caste and gender

Indian journalists are overwhelmingly from the upper castes, and their caste-blindness and Brahminical attitudes have been called out. Justice cannot be done in a story like Hathras unless these blind spots are acknowledged. Cursory information on the Valmikis, the caste to which the young woman belonged, is unhelpful in trying to understand how caste dynamics plays out in a Thakur-majority village like Boolagarhi. How do we understand, for instance, the Thakur network stretching from the chief minister to the lowliest havaldar, which allows upper caste mobilisation even as Dalit anger is suppressed? (‘The Valmikis of Hathras and India are Up Against Hindu Democracy’, October 7).

How do the media understand the intersectionality of gender and caste violence if they have no idea of brutal episodes like the Bhanwari Devi case or Khairlanji? The state machinery and justice system have miserably failed Dalit women, as Kiruba Munusamy, a Dalit woman lawyer, has observed (‘Hathras Case: The Intersecting Factors Behind Structural Violence Against Dalit Women’, October 1). She should have brought in the media into her formulation.

Many of the concerns that India’s feminist movement has been highlighting have been overlooked in media coverage. One of them is understanding “consent”. The police who now claim that no rape took place know well the significance of the term “zabardasti” (used colloquially to suggest coercive sexual assault) that the woman used in her dying declaration, yet chose to ignore it.

As lawyer Vrinda Grover has observed, professional treatment elude Dalit women’s bodies. Institutional complicity can only be understood against the backdrop of the caste system. It is also significant that the most important institutional mechanism the UP government has to address caste atrocities – the UP SC/ST Commission – has not had a chairperson for almost a year.

Challenge four: Gaps in media awareness of the law

The lack of legal awareness was a major stumbling block. Most journalists covering the case did not realize that the police and state administration, by delaying registration of the FIR, delaying the forensic examination, pressurising the family to change its statement and forcibly cremating the body, were committing serious illegalities (‘UP Police Officers Must Be Investigated for Attempting to Shield Hathras Accused’, October 3).

Police personnel stand guard near Boolagarhi village following outrage over death of the 19-year-old Dalit woman who was gangraped, in Hathras district, Saturday, October 3, 2020. Photo: PTI

There are also some basic legal principles which have a direct bearing on media coverage. For instance, “rape” is not a medical term; that according to medico-legal guidelines, the examining doctor should confine themselves to their examination findings and not venture into suggesting whether a rape occurred (‘Exclusive: Aligarh Hospital MLC Report on Hathras Victim Shatters UP Police’s ‘No Rape’ Claim’). It is for the prosecution to prove this. The police claim that rape did not occur because the report of the Aligarh hospital did not confirm rape was prevarication, which should have been called out immediately if the media had known this cardinal principle.

What some did call out – which was great – was the police attempt to pass off the fact that the forensic report found no sperm on the woman’s body as evidence that no rape was committed. Forensics conducted 11 days after the crime can hardly be expected to find such evidence, even if we overlook the point that under the amended criminal law, any sexual assault on a woman’s body is considered a rape and need not be limited to vaginal penetration and ejaculation.

There are other important legal aspects that proved to be blind spots in media coverage. Take, for instance, the admissibility of the dying declaration. As the piece, ‘Why the Dying Declaration of the Hathras Victim Is Legally Admissible Evidence’, (October 3), observes, “A dying declaration is an important piece of evidence which, if found veracious and voluntary by the court, could be the sole basis for conviction.” The media also failed to pay sufficient attention to whether the accused medically were medically examined and interrogated.

The events that played out in Boolagarhi village, Hathras, could lend themselves to a primer on covering crimes that have gender and caste dimensions. The state’s anxiety to clear the village of journalists came through clearly in the DM’s words to the family (‘Hathras District Magistrate Caught on Video Asking Victim’s Family to Soften Stance’, October 2): “Half of the media people have left today, the other half will leave by tomorrow. Only we will stand with you. It is up to you whether you want to change your statement or not.”

The media have indeed left. There is every likelihood that the Adityanath government’s narrative will prevail. What this really means is that even as the media move on to other assignments, they cannot allow the Hathras story to slip into oblivion.

Julian Assange needs our support

Many journalists go along with the arguments of the US and UK governments that Julian Assange is a criminal for having shared documents of state governments. But if they consider for a moment what he was able to accomplish through WikiLeaks, a website set up in 2006, they may come around to the view that in fact his work symbolised the best and most crucial aspects of journalism: courageously informing the public about issues that concern them deeply by exposing them to the crimes committed by governments they elected to power.

Assange’s extradition hearings in London in September saw widespread support for him from many witnesses who instead of exposing him pulled the rug off the many illegalities committed by the government of the US and UK in their long, hard fought effort to sentence him to what could be notionally a 175-year-long jail term. The verdict will be out only early next year. In the meanwhile Assange remains caged in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison in south London – a situation that has taken a severe toll on his physical and mental health. History may extol him as a true hero, but what a personal price he has had to pay.

In a recent conversation with Jimmy Dore, political commentator and stand-up comedian, Noam Chomsky roundly berated the journalist community for their failure to speak out louder in support of Assange: “It’s not a great tribute to journalism to see them back away from supporting someone who has lived up to the highest ideals of the profession and is being savagely persecuted for doing so.”

The right way, HT!

The biggies of the media world tend to disdain cyber portals as news sources, although they are not averse to dipping into their content and passing off these lifts as their own hard work. So when there are due acknowledgements made, it is occasion to note and commend the honesty. The Hindustan Times, for instance, in its front page news report of October 8, ‘Protected witnesses exposed inadvertently by Delhi Police’, duly acknowledged the fact that The Wire was first with that piece of news (‘Exclusive: Delhi Police Blows Cover of Secret Riot ‘Witnesses’, Chargesheet Outs Identities’, October 7).

A shame called Hathras

Madan Mohan Shukla asks some basic questions in the wake of the Hathras gangrape:

“Are we living in civilised society?…The police deliberately delayed the investigations, delayed the lodging of the FIR, and was lax about ensuring that the victim received proper treatment. They also consistently claimed that this was not a gangrape but mere personal enmity…

“As you saw in Vikas Dubey case, the police are being used as tools by the government to silence the opposition and those who oppose their atrocities. The burning example of the Kuldeep Sengar rape case is before us. Here, the police tortured the victim’s family for two years on the instructions of Sengar although the BJP MLA was himself the rape accused. The same things are happening with regard to Hathras, but most disturbing was the desperation of the UP government to cremate the body at 2.30 am, with the family being denied the right to do so according to their religious traditions. This is a clear violation of Article 25 of Indian Constitution. In 2017, during the campaign for the UP Vidhan Sabha elections, Prime Minister Modi in one speech roared like lion, condemning crimes against women and Dalits that occurred under the Akhilesh government’s watch. A slogan was also coined: ‘Bahut hua nari par var. Ab ki bar, Modi sarkar’. Today this government is breaking all records in crimes against women.”

The Democratic Research Scholars’ Organisation (DRSO) also condemned in the strongest terms the horrible gangrape and murder in Hathras:

“With pain and anguish we stood and witnessed another woman – from Hathras, UP – being brutally tortured and gang raped. While this happened on September 14, the sheer apathy and neglect of the police and other authorities for the subsequent two weeks led to her death in Safdarjang hospital on September 29. The brave 19-year-old fought the criminals to the last, identifying them even on her death bed. We then find the administration proactively burning and burying her lifeless body deep in the night, thrashing her family and the villagers. The brutality and horror of the incident reminded us of Nirbhaya, or Asifa, or more recently Priyanka, and so many other crimes against women and children. The conscience of society is shaken, and well-meaning people of all sections of society have again taken to the streets.

We wish to convey our solidarity to the protests against this crime and demand the speedy trial of the culprits.”

Tech, tech

A reader, Radhakant, has a rather alarming observation to make:

“I am experiencing some unusual behaviour in the YouTube app available on Jio Fibre set top box. When I open any news article from The Wire, I can only hear the audio and not able to see the video. The same is happening to other online new channels like Quint, BBC Hindi, Lallantop, and Dhruv Rathee. One common feature they share is that they don’t cover the news in the way the government would like. The response I got on this issue from their email service is restricted because of the reduced number of associates. Can someone from your team please check with the Jio team on this?”

Thank you, Radhakant, that is quite a tip-off, although we hope this is not the case. Incidentally, the piece, ‘India Will Not Be Able To Ignore the Threat of Tech and Data Oligopolies for Long’ (October 10) did some straight talking on the unregulated power that Reliance Jio is coming to acquire: “Many experts reckon that Reliance Jio is trying to emerge as a single gateway for the Indian consumer wallet that may want anything from daily grocery, to media to entertainment to sundry other services.”

A response to ‘Mahua Moitra, the 1st Time MP Taking India by Storm, Reveals the Woman Behind the Politician’ (September 25):

“The interviewer’s fascination with Mahua Moitra’s appearance, choice of clothing and culinary skills indicates that “despite claiming to represent an alternative media, the interviewer’s sexist and condescending remarks reflect the mainstream media’s orthodox gaze.”

M.S. Manu Shankar writes that he “genuinely wants to see The Wire influencing a greater number” and suggests that it uses posters – a device that is today widely shared and read on social media and doesn’t consume much time of the reader “unlike the elaborate and intellectually packed articles in The Wire.”

“My suggestion is if we can, kind of de-intellectualise our every day news content to fit into small little posters with The Wire icon on it, it will surely have greater visibility on wider social media platforms. People like me who like to defend the truth are largely unarmed on social media against the propaganda media – and The Wire posters will serve to equip people to defend the truth and win their hearts.”

Thank you. That is something to think about.

Examination woes

A mail from Madhav Prakash, Convener, Students Union Against Offline Exams:

“I am a third year law student. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, we were promoted to the next semester on the basis of the previous semester performance. However, the Bar Council of India (BCI), which regulates legal education, has notified the conducting of an online examination for final year students with an alternative method of examination for those unable to take the online examination. In the same notification, the BCI has mandated the conduct of examinations for intermediate semester students. IP University has misconstrued it and now intends to hold offline examination for intermediate semester law students. This has triggered serious unrest among the law students throughout the country, given the COVID-19 pandemic. Our plea is that when the final year students have been given a clear choice for online/offline examinations, any insistence on offline examinations for intermediate semester law students is violative of their rights.”

Countering The Wire

Sima Mishra writes in:

“I am from Jharkhand, the same state where the Tabrez Ansari’s mob lynching took place. The Wire wrote articles about it. I am now waiting for you to carry articles on the murder in June of Rameshwar Murmu, a descendant of the great freedom fighter Shiddu Kannu. The alleged killer went by the name of Saddam Ansari. There have been many cases of Dalits dying in violence perpetrated by the Muslim community, but I don’t see a single article on these cases on your portal. Channels like Republic TV and Aaj Tak are termed ‘godi media’. What about biased publications like yours?”

Write to publiceditor@cms.thewire.in

Hathras: Allahabad HC Rejects Plea by Victim’s Family against ‘Illegal Detention’ by UP Police

The bench noted that the state government had already been directed to file affidavits clarifying its stand in the entire case by the Supreme Court.

New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has rejected a plea by the family members of the 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died as a result of a brutal gang rape at Hathras, seeking release from the alleged “illegal detention” by the UP police in their native village.

A division bench of Justices Prakash Padia and Pritinker Diwaker on Thursday noted that the state government had already been directed to file affidavits clarifying its stand in the entire case by the Supreme Court, according to a report in The Hindu.

“In the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case, judicial propriety demands that it will not be proper for this Court to entertain the present petition on merits, especially when security has been provided to petitioners 1 to 6 and other family members of the deceased victim-girl on the observation made by the apex court,” said the high court and added that similar directions had also been issued by the Lucknow bench of the HC in a suo motu petition on October 1.

The court added that if the petitioners had any grievance, they were at liberty to file an appropriate petition or application before the apex court.

The habeas corpus petition had been filed by the family in the high court through the Akhil Bharatiya Valmiki Mahapanchayat.

Also read: Kathua, Unnao, Hathras: The Government’s Hall of Shame

The petition also sought a direction to the administration to allow the victim’s family to move to Delhi as per their free will. The petition alleged that the family had been “prevented from meeting or communicating freely, thereby violating their Fundamental Right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to receive information”.

The state government counsel objected to the petition saying that the matter was already sub-judice before the Supreme Court and hence the plea before the high court was not maintainable.

Activists hold placards during a protest against the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman who was allegedly gang-raped two weeks ago in Hathras (UP), outside Chaitya Bhoomi in Mumbai, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. Photo: PTI/Mitesh Bhuvad

The high court’s observation came on the same day when the four accused in the gang rape case sent a letter to the district police chief from the Aligarh Jail, where the four are lodged. In the letter, the accused Sandeep Singh claimed that he and three others were being falsely implicated and sought “justice”. The accused also alleged that he was “friends” with the victim and that her family did not approve of their friendship and further claimed that the victim had been beaten by her brother and mother after he met her in the fields on the day of the incident

In response to news of the letter, a female relative of the victim said that “plans” to protect the four accused were being put in place. “Stories are being pitched to save them. Everything is theirs, the ministers and the MPs are theirs. Who do we have? Poor people don’t have anyone except for God,” the woman said.

In three separate videos, the 19-year-old victim spoke about her ordeal and said that the assailants forced themselves onto her.

“Creating a narrative that defames a woman’s character and holding her somehow responsible for crimes committed against her is revolting and regressive,” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said and added that the woman deserved “justice not slander”.