Hathras victim was cremated at night on DM's order, Crime Branch inspector reveals

5-October-2020

A police official has revealed that it was on Hathras District Magistrate Praveen Kumar Laxkar's directions that the 19-year-old gangrape victim's body was cremated in the dark of night. The move to burn her body to ashes wihout the presence of victim's family had invited a lot of criticism for the Uttar Pradesh government, police and the local administration.

In an exclusive conversation with India TV, Crime Branch Inspector Sanjeev Sharma said he was deployed near the site where the victim's cremation took place last week.

"Whatever happened there was on DM sahab's directions. Whenever an incident takes place, things are done in accordance with the district magistrate's orders," he told Sources.

The girl was raped on September 14 and died of her griveous injuries in the early hours of September 29 at Delhi's Safdarjung hospital. She was later cremated in the dead of night near her home on Wednesday. Her family, who wished to see her and perform last rituals, alleged that the local police hurriedly conducted the rites on their own while they were locked up in the house.

In a crackdown against erring officials, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had last week suspended Hathras SP Vikrant Vir and four other policemen. Besides Vikrant Vir, the other suspended policemen included Circle Officer Ramshabd, Inspector Dinesh Kumar Verma, Sub-Inspector Jagveer Singh and Head Constable Mahesh Pal. Shamli SP Vineet Jaiswal was transferred to Hathras.