A video has gone viral on social media where members of the Thakur community in Uttar Pradesh can be heard expressing their anguish over the arrest of the accused in the Hathras case while claiming that the accused are being falsely implicated in a rape case. The gathering was organised on Friday by the Savarna Samaj of more than two dozen villages.
हाथरस मामले में ठाकुर समाज की भी पंचायत हुई है. पंचायत में FSL रिपोर्ट का ज़िक्र करते हुए कहा गया कि रेप नहीं हुआ है, हमारे बच्चों को फंसाया जा रहा है. pic.twitter.com/MUkpK6RzOM
— Ranvijay Singh (@ranvijaylive) October 3, 2020
“The FSL report says there was no rape but politicians and the media claim there was rape,” one of the voices can be heard saying. The apparent leader of the gathering says that an impartial investigation should be conducted and if any of the accused is found not-guilty, then they should be let off without bail. He also bemoans the fact that the reputation of the community has been tarnished.
The person also says that no one should create a nuisance and should not resort to any hooliganism. The person emphasised that no political party should come among them. He says that everyone has spat upon their kids and their community and their sentiments have been hurt because of it. “Only oppose the political parties, the rest will sort itself out,” he says.
The panchayat also affirmed their support for a Narco test. Meanwhile, a Jagran report claims that the Hathras Case was initially related to an attempt to murder. It says that initially, the brother of the accused had only filed a case related to attempt to murder and rape was not alleged in the initial complaint.
The report says that for five days, no other complaint was made. The report says that the first twist in the tale came after some politicians met the victim on the 19th of September. It was then that the victim added eve teasing to the list of complaint. Then, on the 22nd of September, rape was added to the allegations and three more names were added to the list of accused. It is reported that a senior Congress leader met the victim on the 19th of September.
It is pertinent to note that medical examination has ruled out rape. Furthermore, the Jagran report says that Shyoraj Jeevan, the former state secretary of the Congress party, met the family of the victim as well after meeting the victim herself following which the narrative started changing. A statement by the Congress leader was also reported to have been going viral which says, ‘Our daughter has saved her honour but the sinners have cut her tongue, broken her spine.’
The report says that the allegations of eve teasing and rape was added after the matter was politicised. And the police consequently added relevant sections to the case and arrested the four accused. Meanwhile, the family of the accused have denied the charges. They have claimed that the accusations are false and motivated by an old family feud with the victim’s family.
A lot of debate and political mudslinging has been happening around the Hathras case since the victim succumbed to her injuries in Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital on Tuesday morning. She was allegedly raped two weeks ago. The case attracted nationwide outrage when some reports claimed Hathras Police forcefully cremated the girl on Tuesday night without consent of the family members. The police had later stated that the victim’s father was present during the cremation.
Speaking to ANI, ADG Prashant Kumar had informed that the forensic reports that were awaited have also been received. ADG stated that the FSL report found no evidence of ‘rape’. He asserted that it was concluded that there was no sexual assault, and the cause of death was strangulation and injury to the spine.
