AP Singh, the lawyer who defended the 2012 Nirbhaya Convicts, will be defending the four accused in the recent Hathras gang-rape and murder case that has created a nationwide uproar.
As per sources, the former Union Minister Raja Manvendra Singh who is the national president of Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha, an upper-caste body, has appointed AP Singh to defend the accused in the Hathras gangrape case, wherein a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped allegedly by four upper caste men on 14th September 2020. She reportedly succumbed to her injuries after fighting for her life for two weeks in Safdarjung hospital, Delhi.
In a letter addressed to media, Raja Manvendra Singh said: “In this case, it has been decided that AP Singh will plead the case for the accused party to bring out the truth.” The letter further added that the political organization has collected a lot of money to hire AP Singh as they thought that the SC/ST community is being “misused” to malign the upper caste society, adding that it has particularly hurt the Rajput community.
On the other hand, amid a nationwide outrage over the growing number of caste-led rape cases, the four accused in the Hathras gangrape case have been getting support from upper-caste groups who are demanding an “unbiased” probe. Last week, workers affiliated with Savarn Samaj (Upper caste society) staged a protest in support of the men accused of brutalizing the Dalit women and demanded justice for them.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that a conspiracy was being hatched in the state by politicizing the incident in order to organize an ethnic riot.
