New Delhi / Hathras: The body of the 20-year-old Dalit woman, who died at a Delhi hospital on Tuesday, was cremated by the police and district administration of Hathras on Wednesday against the wishes of the family.
The body of the woman was brought to the Hathras village around 1 am. The villagers claimed that they wanted to take the body of the woman to her house, but administration pressed for cremation at the earliest. The passage for ambulance was blocked but the police pushed the protesters away and cremated the victim around 3 am in the absence of family members and without any customs.
The police, meanwhile, said that the cremation of the woman was carried out by the family members. Superintendent of Police (SP) Vikrant Veer denied any “urgency” by police in cremation despite the fact that cremation usually does not take place in night.
Prem Prakash Meena, the Joint Magistrate of Hathras, told news agency ANI, “The last rites of the victim have been performed. Police and administration will ensure that the perpetrators of the crime are brought to justice.”
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said prime minister Narendra Modi had spoken to him on the incident and asked for ‘strictest’ punishment against the accused.
“Those responsible for the unfortunate incident with the girl in Hathras shall not be spared. A three-member special team has been formed to probe the case. It will submit its report in seven days. To ensure speedy justice, the case will be tried in a fast-track court,” Adityanath tweeted.
After the death of the victim, in many districts of the state, people took out a candle march in support of the victim and pleaded for justice.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the guilty be tried and hanged at the earliest. “The death of Hathras victim is shameful for the entire society, country as well as for all the governments. It is highly sad that so many daughters are being sexually assaulted and we have not been able to protect them,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
“A Dalit girl who was a victim of demoniac behaviour in Hathras has passed away at Safdarjung Hospital. For two weeks, she kept struggling between life and death in hospitals,” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi said on Twitter.