Saturday, 03 October 2020 | PNS | New Delhi
Yogi says those ‘who even think of harming a woman’s self-respect will face total destruction’
After the district administration and police force of Hathras came under scanner in handling of the probe into rape and murder of a Dalit woman, the Yogi Adityanath Government on Friday suspended five policemen, including Superintendent of Police Vikrant Vir. The Government asked SP, Shamli, Vineet Jaiswal, to immediately take charge as new SP of Hathras.
Facing criticism and calls for his resignation, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi said those “who even think of harming a woman’s self-respect will face total destruction”.
An official communiqué released by the Government spokesman here on Friday night confirmed that on basis of primarily enquiry of the SIT, Yogi placed SP Vikrant Vir, then Deputy SP Ram Sabd, then SHO Dinesh Kumar Verma, senior Sub-Inspector, Jagveer Singh and head constable clerk Mahesh Pal under suspension.
The Government also decided to conduct narco analysis and polygraph tests of both — the complainant and the accused — to extract the truth, the Government spokesman claimed.
Sources said the surprising decision to conduct narco and polygraph tests on the complainant has been taken after villagers from a dozen hamlets of the Hathras district held a panchayat on Friday and claimed that all the accused were innocent and that the family members of the victims should be put through the narco test.
They also demanded that the probe be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Speculation was rife throughout the day that the DM will also be shown the door after he was caught on camera on Thursday threatening the family members of the victim. But he survived the purge, at least for time being.
The police action to cremate the body of the victim at midnight without the consent of her family members created countrywide outrage and triggered demand for the resignation of the Chief Minister.
Several video and audio tapes have surfaced in which the family members of the victim have been heard saying they are under threat from the police and attempts have been made to buy their silence by offering them compensation.
The role of the police is also under scrutiny for not taking timely action to arrest the culprits after arresting one person on the basis of the FIR filed by the brother of the victims on September 14, the day of the brutal sexual assault. If four people were involved in the crime, the police should have been able to know about their involvement from the interrogation of the first accused. But they waited for eight days before taking any action.
Sources said in its preliminary report, the Special Investigation Team probing the incident called for the suspension of the SP and others cops over allegations of mismanagement.
BJP leaders Uma Bharti joined the Opposition in slamming the administration for the way they have clamped down on the media and stopped political leaders from entering Hathras. Similarly, the High Court has severely criticised the government for the midnight cremation of the Dalit girl.
Bharti on Friday urged Yogi to allow the media and politicians to meet the family and criticised the haste with which the young woman was cremated at midnight.
“She was the daughter of a Dalit family. She was cremated by the police in a hurry and now the family and the village police are under siege,” she wrote in Hindi.
“At first I thought that I should not say anything because you must be taking action in this regard. However, the manner in which the police have laid a siege to the village and the victim’s family is concerning no matter what the arguments in its favour may be,” Bharti said.
“I don’t know of any rule under which a family can’t meet anybody because of a SIT probe. Doing this would cast doubts on the SIT probe itself,” she said.
