The Hathras gangrape victim’s body was cremated in the dead of the night (at around 2:30 am) of September 30 by the Uttar Pradesh police which was speculated to be an unconditional move to get rid of all the possible pieces of evidence against the culprits. Upon questioning, the police claimed that the woman was never raped and that the allegations were false.

The Allahabad High Court described the hurried cremation as “a prima facie infringement upon the human rights of the victim and her family”. With regards to the rushed cremation of the victim, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court comprised of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Rajan Roy asked the Additional Director General (Law and order) Prashant Kumar rhetorically, if he would have allowed his daughter to be cremated in a similar way. The case was heard this Monday, October 12, while the statement was announced today.

The court bench stated that – “The guiding principle of governance and administration, after independence, should be to ‘serve’ and ‘protect’ people and not to ‘rule’ and ‘control’ as was the case prior to independence. The government should come out with appropriate procedures as guidance for district officials to deal with such situations.”

In addition to this, the court also said that it was inappropriate for Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, Prashant Kumar to comment on the Hathras case and evidences when he was not directly involved in it. He was in no position to decide whether the victim was raped or not as the investigation was still going on. The high court bench heavily indicted the actions of the police and the administration.

The Forensic Reports, which many suspect were falsified, specified the absence of semen sample. Many people defending the atrocious police actions used this to conclude that it was a false rape allegation. On this, the High Court pulled up the police and asked whether they were aware of the amendments in the law relating to the definition of rape with effect from 2013. The amendments state that the mere absence of semen during a forensic examination, though a factor for consideration would not by itself be conclusive as to whether rape had been committed or not if there are other admissible pieces of evidence.

The HC said that the investigation by SIT or CBI shall now remain confidential and no report should be leaked to the public from now onwards. The State and other senior officials had been directed to ensure the safety of the victim’s family.

The court had asked the victim’s family and the senior officials involved in the Hathras case to be present at the hearing on Monday. The father of the deceased victim said that neither he nor any other family member was informed or allowed to participate in the last rites of the victim. He pleaded to the court demanding justice for his daughter and actions to be taken against the UP police who illegally cremated their daughter depriving them of their last hope to her. The victim was cremated against the wish of the family and against the Valmiki tradition which disallows the cremation after the Sunset.

The District Magistrate, Praveen Kumar Laxkar justified the hurried cremation stating that if the cremation had been delayed until the next morning a large crowd would have gathered at the site which could easily have turned into a political matter. However, the court was not satisfied with the DM’s justification and denied it being a “collective decision” of the police department.

In a parallel turn of events, more than one incidents of rapes have surfaced in UP. On Sunday, during the Preliminary examination of the UP provincial civil services exam, a 17 year old girl was raped by a student of Jhansi College inside the campus, while around eleven other students made a video of the incident. After the gruesome horrifying incident, they robbed her of Rs 2000. In another recent incident of sexual violence against girl child, a four year old girl was allegedly raped by her relative in Sasni, Hathhras.

The author is a student member of the Amity Centre of Happiness.