#Hathras: A Complete Failure Of UP Gov!

The Ministry of External Affairs took serious exception to the United Nations resident coordinator in India, Renata Lok-Dessallien’s statement that she was “profoundly saddened and concerned” at the continuing cases of sexual violence against women and girls in India,” even when nationwide outrage erupted against the administration of the Uttar Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Adityanath.

The UN coordinator referred to the “alleged rape and murder in Hathras and Balarampur are another reminder that despite the impressive progress made on a number of social indicators, women and girls from disadvantaged social groups face additional vulnerabilities and are at greater risk of gender-based violence”.

The Indian authorities said that the comments were “unwarranted” and “unnecessary” when a probe is underway as the government was considering the cases extremely serious. The ministry, in a statement, said that justice would be done to all the people in the country as per the Constitution.

The Hathras incident in which a 19-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by four men belonging to upper castes spiralled into a political controversy after the police hurriedly burned her body in the middle of the night, against the wishes of her family. The victim succumbed to her injuries on September 29 at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi, two weeks after the incident, and the body was taken to Hathras and cremated at 2.30 am the same night, even without the participation of her family members.

The UN official also stressed that the authorities ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice speedily, and that families be empowered to seek timely justice, social support, counselling, healthcare and rehabilitation. “Entrenched social norms and behaviour of men and boys that lead to gender-based violence must be addressed,” said the senior UN official.

The state government had asked the CBI to take over the probe. Earlier, the state police have filed at least 19 complaints claiming that there is an “international conspiracy” to defame the UP government and ratchet up caste tensions.

Meanwhile, the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College of the Aligarh Muslim University, in its report, mentioned that the Hathras victim was raped in contrast to what the UP police have been claiming.

On October 1, Prashant Kumar, Uttar Pradesh’s additional DGP claimed that a forensic report showed that the victim had not been raped since no sperm could be found in her body. This statement exposed the systemic lacunae in how sexual assault in India is recorded, investigated and reported.

The UP police department made the statement basing on a forensic report submitted 11 days after the heinous crime was committed.

On Tuesday, the UP police told the Supreme Court that they performed the funeral rites of the woman in the middle of the night following an intelligence report which alerted them over possible breakdown of law and order the next day. The intelligence report also stated that the incident was being used to raise caste and communal tensions, the police told the apex court.