The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet against the four accused in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old girl in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year; and said that the victim and the main accused were “acquaintances”, reported India Today.
The CBI charge sheet also mentioned that the accused allegedly committed the crime out of frustration because the victim was ignoring him and his calls.
The CBI filed a 2,000-page charge sheet against the four accused in the court of special judge against Ravi, Sandeep, Luv Kush and Ramu with charges under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape), 376A, 376D (gang rape) and 302 of the Indian Penal Code along with sections under the SC/ST Act.
During the investigation, the CBI found call records which showed that there had been over 100 calls between the victim and the main accused Sandeep between October 17, 2019 to March 3, 2020 and said that the victim and Sandeep were “acquaintances”, which has been confirmed by many eye witnesses who had claimed that they “used to meet in isolated places”.
The victim’s brother, however, has denied that the victim was in touch with the accused.
On September 14, the Dalit victim was allegedly raped by four upper-caste men in Hathras. She succumbed to her injuries on September 29 in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital and was hurriedly cremated by the Uttar Pradesh police in the dead of the night on September 30 near her village. The rushed manner of the victim’s last rites, which her family alleged was done without their consent, caught the nation’s attention. According to a The Times of India report, days after the cremation, police officials, including the Additional Director General Prashant Kumar had said that on the basis of a forensic report taken 11 days after the incident, there was “no evidence of rape”.
As per The Times of India report, the charges filed by the CBI is based on the victim’s September 22 statement that is considered to be her ‘dying declaration’, in which she accused the four upper-caste men of her village of raping and then strangulating her.
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The victim’s family had initially filed a complaint at the Chandpa police station on September 14 but the CBI charge sheet mentioned that the police officials did not record the victim’s statement as per the mandate of Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
As per the charge sheet, the police did not conduct a medical examination of the victim, despite her brother filing an FIR based on the victim’s statement accusing Sandeep of trying to strangulate her with the intention to kill her and mentioning molestation in a recording.
The CBI report took note of the fact that in spite of the word chedhkhani (eve teasing) being made in the complaint, there was no lady constable available at the Chandpa police station to take her for the medical examination. It was only after September 22, when the victim used the term balatkar (rape) in a recording, that she was sent for the medical examination.