Almost three weeks after a 19-year old Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped by four upper caste men in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district, the Supreme Court of India has said that it will consider on Tuesday, 6 October, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a court-monitored CBI or SIT investigation into the case.
According to a LiveLaw report, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian will consider the admission for the plea, which also seeks the transfer of the case from the UP government to Delhi, over its alleged failure to take strict action against the accused.
The PIL had been filed by social activist Satyama Dubey and advocates Vishal Thakre and Rudra Pratap Yadav.
The petitioners have urged the apex court to pass appropriate order for a fair investigation – either by the CBI or the SIT under a sitting or retired judge of Supreme Court or high court – and transfer the case to Delhi, as Uttar Pradesh authorities had failed to take certain actions against the accused, an IANS report had said.
The plea said the victim was first raped and then brutally assaulted, and according to a medical report, her tongue was chopped and her neck and backbone broken by the accused, who belonged to an upper caste. The victim succumbed to her injuries at Safdarjung hospital in Delhi.
Among public outrage, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had announced that the case will be handed over to the CBI. However, a formal notification regarding the handover is yet to come.
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