‘Shocked our conscience’: Allahabad HC summons top UP govt officials in Hathras gang-rape case
Lucknow: Shocked by the alleged gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh and her forcible cremation subsequently, a Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday summoned top government officials to the court.
A division bench of justices Rajan Roy and Jaspreet Singh ordered Uttar Pradesh additional chief secretary, state police chief and an additional director general of police to appear before it on October 12 to explain the incident.
Taking suo moto cognisance of the case, which has triggered widespread outrage, the bench also ordered Hathras district magistrate and superintendent of police to appear with to apprise the court of various aspects of the case, including the ongoing probe into it.
The court, which appeared especially upset over the police cremating the teen's body overnight allegedly forcibly in Hathras without her parent's consent, asked officials to come prepared with all the relevant material and documents to apprise the court of their versions of the incident.
The incidents which took place after the death of the victim on September 29, 2020 leading up to her cremation, as alleged, have shocked our conscience. Therefore, we are taking suo moto cognizance of the same, the bench said in its order.
The bench also asked the late teen's parent to come to the court to apprise it of their versions of the incident and ordered the Hathras district administration to arrange for their travel to the court and facilitate their appearance before it.
In a replication of the December 2012 Nirbhaya case horrors, the Dalit teen was allegedly sexually assaulted by four men on September 14 in a Hathras village and admitted to the AMU's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Aligarh in a critical condition.
She was on Monday referred to Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital in an extremely critical condition with spinal injuries, paralysis and cuts in her tongue and died on early Tuesday, triggering widespread outrage, protests and calls for justice.
The Hathras police, however, took her body to her native district and allegedly cremated her overnight without her parent's consent.
The judges said they were inclined to examine whether there had been a gross violation of the Fundamental Rights of the deceased and her family members and if the state authorities acted oppressively, high-headedly and illegally to violate these rights.
The rights of individual citizens in the country and the state especially that of the poor and the downtrodden such as the family members of the deceased victim and the deceased herself are paramount.
"The Courts of Law are under a bounden duty to see that the said rights available under the Constitution are protected at all costs and the state does not, in its misplaced endeavour for political or administrative reasons, transgress the limits of its powers to encroach and violate such rights, especially in the case of poor and the weak, observed the bench, while summoning UP government officials.
If it is found to be so, then, this would be a case where accountability will not only have to be fixed but for future guidance, but also stern action would be required, warned a shocked bench
We would like to examine if the economic and social status of the deceased's family has been taken advantage of by the state authorities to oppress and deprive them of their Constitutional rights, the bench said.
The bench also expressed its intention to monitor the ongoing probe into the case by an SIT set up by the UP government and possibly transfer the case to some independent investigation agency, if the probe result does not inspire confidence.
We have also pondered that an SIT has been constituted by the state government in the matter. We leave it open for our consideration on future dates, as to the necessity of monitoring the investigation or getting it conducted through an independent agency as per law, the bench said.
The bench took cognisance of the case on the basis of news reports in various national dailies and TV news channels and also asked them to assist the court in the adjudication of the matter by submitting their news source material in a pen drive or a compact disc.
Besides putting the state government's officials on notice, the bench also asked its registry to communicate the order to the state advocate general and chief standing counsel to respond in the matter.
The bench also appointed senior advocate J N Mathur and Abhinav Bhattacharya as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter.
The bench began its order with a couplet written by Mahatma Gandhi and also quoted Oscar Wilde, who said, "Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth with the grasses wearing above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace."
The court, however, lamented that the death of the Hathras teen had none of these poetic elements in it.
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EC dismisses scope for wrongdoing at strongrooms; prohibitory orders around Kolkata counting centres
Kolkata (PTI): A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spent hours at the EVM strongroom of her Bhabanipur constituency alleging possibilities of malpractices, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal on Friday asserted there is no scope for wrongdoing at the counting centres.
Following tensions around two counting centres in Kolkata late on Thursday, police clamped prohibitory orders on gatherings outside all seven strongrooms in the city.
Stating that round-the-clock CCTV monitoring of strongrooms was in place, Agarwal dismissed the allegations as "baseless".
TMC spokesperson and Beleghata constituency candidate Kunal Ghosh said that party workers and poll aspirants were keeping a strict vigil at the counting centres, where the EVMs are stored in strongrooms, upon directions of party supremo Mamata Banerjee.
"There is no scope for any wrongdoing given the arrangements made to secure the EVMs. The Centres have been kept under thorough CCTV coverage and their live-streamed footage can be seen from outside," Agarwal told reporters.
"One should have reason and evidence for making allegations," he said, maintaining that there were no grounds for levelling charges of EVM tampering or pre-counting malpractice.
Two counting centres in Kolkata witnessed high drama late on Thursday evening after TMC leaders alleged a lack of transparency and possible malpractice at the strongrooms housing sealed EVMs of the assembly polls, which concluded on April 29.
Mamata Banerjee herself landed up at the Sakhawat Memorial School counting centre and stayed put there for about four hours. She emerged from the premises past midnight and warned against any attempts to tamper with the counting process, demanding greater transparency.
TMC leaders and candidates Sashi Panja and Kunal Ghosh held a sit-in outside the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra counting centre on Thursday evening, alleging unauthorised activities inside the strongroom amid the absence of TMC agents.
Matters came to a head after a large number of supporters from both TMC and BJP camps gathered outside the venue, shouting slogans till they were dispersed by security forces.
The EC, however, dismissed the claim, clarifying that poll officials were engaged in the task of segregating postal ballots as per due process and the strongrooms remained secure, asserting all political parties for the mandatory segregation activity were duly notified.
On Friday, Kolkata Police imposed prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS around all seven designated strong rooms in the city.
As per the order issued by Police Commissioner Ajay Nand, the restrictions prohibited the assembly of five or more persons within a 200-metre radius of each strongroom, along with a ban on processions, demonstrations, and carrying of weapons or explosive materials.
The measure, which aims to prevent any breach of peace, violence, or disturbance during the storage of ballot papers and polled EVMs, will remain in force until the commencement of counting on May 4.
Besides the two counting centres in question, the prohibitory orders were also clamped around the Hastings House complex, APC Polytechnic College, St. Thomas Boys' High School, Ballygunge Government High School and the David Hare Training College counting premises.
A senior police officer said enhanced security arrangements have been made at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, the counting centre for several assembly seats in north and east Kolkata housing EVM strong rooms.
"Additional CAPFs and armed police forces have also been deployed under the supervision of an additional commissioner and a deputy commissioner of police," Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Kolkata, Rupesh Kumar, told reporters after visiting the area.
Expressing apprehension that unauthorised movements might occur when a section of postal ballots is brought in the evening, Kunal Ghosh said on Friday morning that the party's polling agents and candidates have been alerted about the matter.
Minister Shashi Panja, who also arrived at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra in the morning, maintained that "transparency" should be ensured for all strongroom activities.
Ghosh told reporters on Friday that though they had seen some movement in a strongroom that allegedly stored postal ballots, there was no such movement on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, Banerjee's challenger at Bhabanipur and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari took a dig at the chief minister for her late-night visit to the counting centre.
"I want to reassure the people of Bhabanipur and of West Bengal that the TMC candidate and outgoing chief minister was prevented from taking any additional advantage. Despite her best intentions to the contrary, she wasn't allowed to act in violation of rules," Adhikari wrote on social media platforms, posting a picture of Banerjee sitting at what appeared to be an area outside the counting centre strong room.
"Till such time she was present there, my election agent, advocate Surjyanil Das personally positioned himself at the spot keeping a tight watch on her so that she isn't able to take recourse to improper means," he added.
Security forces kept a strict vigil in and around counting centres and strongrooms in Kolkata and other districts where EVM machines used in the state assembly elections are stored, an official said.
Sakhawat Memorial School in south Kolkata's Bhabanipur, which saw high drama till the early hours of Friday with the chief minister spending several hours at the counting centre, wore a peaceful look in the morning with security personnel guarding the area.
