In relation to the unfortunate Hathras Case, one more PIL has been presented in the Supreme Court. It has been filed by activist Chetan Janardhan Kamble through advocate Vipin Nair seeking issuance of directions to register offences under section 166-A, 193, 201, 202, 203, 212, 217, 153-A and 339 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and offences under section 3(2) and 4 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 against the government officials including some police officials and the medical staff of J.M. Medical College, AMU, Aligarh and Bangala Joint District Hospital, Hathras, government officials and representatives of the people who were involved in the destruction of evidence.
The plea filed in the Supreme Court states “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.”
It also states that the petitioner prefers the criminal writ petition which is a PIL after some evident facts were 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 titled as “Satyam Dubey and Others V. Union of India and Others.”
The girl’s undergarments were bloodstained and clothes were torn which showed a possibility of sexual assault and due to these facts, an immediate medico-legal examination should have been conducted but they were not and the sample of the semen was tested 8 days after the incident took place. All this shows the complicity of certain UP State police and their officials in the Government machinery. It also stated that on the aspect of response by the UP Government that the cremation was performed in order to avoid a law and order problem is neither bonafide nor reliable. It said that “since there was no threat to law and order if the body of the victim was handed over to the family of the victim after the post-mortem; threat, as alleged in the intelligence report, existed only in reference to the police involvement to cremate the body and was made by the lower caste groups who had concerns about justice for the victim girl.”
The district magistrate of the area was also seen openly threatening the family of the victim, the plea said. All these incidents clearly indicate that the collective effort by the state machinery was only to coerce and intimidate the witnesses and it also depicts the hostility that is openly shown towards the public at large which is seen from the facts that the village was completely cut off for two days after the incident so that no essential information is leaked and there was hence, no transparency.
The petitioner urges the Apex Court to carry on the investigation of this case by an independent special task force which would be of impeachable integrity and has the experience of criminal investigation and this task force should be appointed by the apex court itself. Also, it seeks the issuance of directions by the court to the respondents to deposit all evidence which also includes the video-recoding of the statements of the victim and her relatives and also handover all the medico-legal evidence which was collected at the time of autopsy by the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. The plea also asked for protection to the witness the family members.
