The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team, which is probing the alleged Hathras gang-rape and murder, on Tuesday, 13 October, visited the scene of the incident, a day after they reached the city in Uttar Pradesh.
The investigation team collected samples from the crime spot, as a part of their ongoing investigation.
News agency ANI reported that the victim's brother was brought to the incident site where the CBI team is carrying out its investigation. According to NDTV, the victim’s mother was also taken to the spot after a brief hospital visit after she complained of being unwell.
According to News18, the area was cordoned off as the team recreated the scene of the crime.
On Monday, the CBI team reached Hathras to collect all documents in the case from the Uttar Pradesh Police, including an SIT set up by the state, news agency IANS reported.
The CBI team did the mapping of the field where the crime happened, on 14 September, and also tried to ascertain who all were present and at how much distance.
It also tried to understand if the victim raised an alarm for help, and whether anyone heard her voice, and who saw the victim first in the farm field, reported IANS.
The team carried out search operations in the field where the crime took place for a few hours, to find out if any evidence was left behind.
CBI team stayed at the crime scene for more than two and a half hours and then reached the spot where the body of the victim was cremated in the absence of family members.
CBI then once again called the brother of the victim and the forensic team collected the ashes from the spot.
After reaching the home of the victim's family, the CBI team recorded the statement of the family members separately. After recording the statement of family members, the CBI team left the village along with the elder brother of the victim, to further record his statement.
The agency had said on Sunday that it had registered a case and taken over the investigation of the case, IANS reported, adding that it has constituted a special team to probe the case. According to NDTV, the team is headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police Seema Pahuja.
On 3 October, the Uttar Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had recommended a CBI probe into the case. The case was earlier being probed by the Uttar Pradesh Police, but the CBI took over following the request by the UP government and further notification from the central government.
A CBI probe will ensure that nobody would be able to create a fake and false narrative with “oblique motives,” the UP government had said.
The CBI registered a case on a complaint of the victim's brother, who alleged that an accused had tried to strangulate her sister in a millet field on 14 September. The case was registered under Sections 376D (gang rape), 307 (attempt to murder), 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The Dalit woman was allegedly raped and brutalised by four upper-caste men on 14 September and her mortal remains forcibly cremated on the night of 30 September.
Mother, Father of Victim Unwell
Meanwhile, ANI said that the mother of the Hathras victim was on Tuesday taken to the hospital after reportedly feeling unwell. She was accompanied by two of her family members, ANI reported.
The father of the victim is also unwell, Brijesh Rathore, Hathras Chief Medical officer told ANI, after a team that paid a visit to him found that he has several ailments, including high blood pressure. However, he was not willing to go to the hospital, necessitating a home visit from Rathore.
(With inputs from ANI, NDTV, News18 and IANS.)
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