NEW DELHI: Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati Maliwal wrote on Wednesday to Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and other senior judges of Supreme Court demanding strict action against the Uttar Pradesh government, officials and police for their alleged role in covering up the Hathras gangrape and murder.
Maliwal also demanded a high court-monitored investigation and trial to ensure the strictest and swiftest possible punishment to the culprits.
Maliwal, in her letter, demanded immediate suspension and punitive action against all erring police and administrative officials.
“The incident has again exposed the complete apathy and disregard our system shows towards its daughters and mothers. The victim was gang-raped on September 14 and left to die in the fields with grievous injuries,” she said.
“Despite repeated pleas from the family, the local police failed to register and for five days the accused persons roamed around scot-free. Despite her serious condition from day one, the Government of Uttar Pradesh shifted the victim to Delhi only on September 28 where she succumbed to her injuries the next day.”
The role of the police and the entire UP government is a matter of grave concern as for days the administration tried to pass of the matter as a dispute between villages and tried to cover-up the incident, alleged Maliwal.
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“Had immediate action be taken on the pleas of the family and had the victim been shifted to Delhi earlier, we may not have lost another daughter,” she said.
“Even in death, the UP government was not moved by the pleas and tears of the victim and gravest of grave violation of the human rights of the victim, her family was locked up in their home and the her body was forcibly taken to the fields at 2 am in the morning and cremated by the police officials,” she said.
“No family member was allowed to cremate the body and even in death, the family could not be with their daughter,” Maliwal wrote.