Hathras (Uttar Pradesh): The 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died in a Delhi hospital a fortnight after she was gang-raped in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras, was cremated early on Wednesday even as the victim's family alleged that the police forcibly took the body for the last rites in the middle of the night.
'Wanted to perform funeral in the morning, cops were in haste'
The victim's father said that the police took the body and carried out the cremation without any family members present at the spot.
"We had told the police that we will perform funeral in the morning. But they were in haste and were forcing us to do it immediately. They said it has been 24 hours and the body is decomposing. We wanted to do it in the morning as more relatives would have come by then," the victim's brother told a news agency today morning.
"The police have forcibly taken the dead body, and my father along with them for cremation. When my father reached Hathras, he was immediately taken (to the crematorium) by the police," a brother of the woman had earlier told a news agency over phone at 1 am.
Another relative said that the woman's father was accompanied by 30 to 40 people, chiefly relatives, and others from their neighbourhood had gone to the crematorium near Bool Garhi village, under Chandpa police station limits, in the district in western UP.
"Humein ye samajh nahi aa raha kyun, kya chahiye... kaisi rajneeti kar rahe hain ye log, saare ulte seedhe bayaan de rahe hain ke ladki ka rape nahi hua hai... pata nahi kya chahiye inko (We are unable to understand, what they want... what kind of politics is this, they are giving random statements like the woman has not been raped! We don't know what they want)," said the relative who was home with the grieving family.
"Ye sab is maamle ko thanda karne ke liye bol rahe hain... (They are doing all this to hush up the case)," he alleged.
Officials say cremation conducted with family's permission
However, officials said that the cremation was carried out with the family's permission.
"We had the permission and cooperation of the victim's family members. The last rites of the victim have been performed keeping in view of the peace situation here," Hathras Joint Magistrate Prem Prakash Meena said.
The woman was raped in a village in Hathras by four men on September 14. After her condition deteriorated, she was referred to Delhi's Safdarjung hospital where she breathed her last on Tuesday.