The Allahabad High Court on Thursday took suo motu cognizance of the fatal assault and alleged gangrape of a Dalit woman in Hathras, especially her hurried cremation, and directed senior officials of the state government and police, including of the district, to be present at the next hearing on October 12.

A two-judge Bench said family members of the deceased would also be present that day so that the court could hear their version of the cremation organised by the police in the middle of the night, and wondered if the authorities acted thus because of their economic status. It also said that it would decide “as to the necessity of monitoring the investigation or getting it conducted through an independent agency as per law”.The Bench of Justices Rajan Roy and Jaspreet Singh, that quoted extensively from a reportthat appeared on Thursday, said that while four accused had been arrested and an SIT set up to probe the matter, “However, for the moment, we are concerned with what has happened thereafter. The incidents which took place after the death of the victim on 29.09.2020 leading up to her cremation, as alleged, have shocked our conscience, therefore, we are taking suo moto cognizance of the same.”

The court said the matter is of “immense public importance and public interest” as there are allegations of “high-handedness by the state authorities resulting in violation of the basic human and fundamental rights not only of the deceased victim but also of her family members”.

The judges said, “As it is, the deceased victim was treated with extreme brutality by the perpetrators of the crime, and what is alleged to have happened thereafter, if true, amounts to perpetuating the misery of the family and rubbing salt in their wounds.”

The court said that it would like to examine “whether 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”.

  Allahabad High Court