A fresh PIL has been moved before the Supreme Court seeking for an SIT probe into the Hathras gangrape incident, and also registration of penal offenses as well as offenses under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, against the officials concerned.
The PIL filed by a social activist Chetan Janardhan Kamble urged the Court to direct the registration of offenses under Sections 166-A, 193, 201, 202, 203, 212, 217, 153-A and 339 of the Indian Penal Code and offenses under section 3 (2) and 4 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, against police officials, hospital staff and medical officers and other government officials, who allegedly had a role to play in the “destruction of evidence” and “shielding of the accused”.
“The facts clearly indicate the involvement and complicity of certain UP State police and officials of the State government machinery in manipulation and destruction of evidence and shielding the accused in respect of the subject crime,” read the plea.
Further, the plea alleged that the petitioner is constrained to prefer the present criminal writ petition in the form of public interest litigation after some glaring facts have been revealed regarding the State support for manipulating and destroying evidence in the Hathras gang-rape and murder case, from the affidavit filed by the State of UP in titled as ‘Satyama Dubey And Others vs. Union Of India And Others’ before the Supreme Court.
The series of events as reported purportedly show involvement and complicity of the State officials in “destruction of evidence”, read the PIL while citing that these officials appear to be shielding the accused persons.
The plea also asserted to the heinous fact about the midnight cremation of the victim as another shocking step taken by the police officials and “smacks of them being involved in suppressing the crime rather than investigating it. This unpardonable crime by the state police and other government instrumentality, which denied the family of the victim even the basic right to perform last rites on the body of the victim is nothing but depravity of the soul.”
The plea also points to the fact that certain state officials like the District Magistrate of the area were seen openly threatening the family victims. “It shows the hostility that is being openly meted out to the public at large as could be seen from the facts that the village was completely cut off for two days to the outside world in order to ensure that there is no transparency,” observed the plea.
