The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has written a letter to Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and other judges of the Supreme Court urging them to take cognisance of the gang-rape and murder of a Dalit girl in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district.
The Chief of DCW, Swati Maliwal, has requested the court to call for a High Court-monitored investigation into the case to ensure "strictest and swiftest" possible punishment to the accused.
The DCW has requested the Supreme Court to take cognizance of the matter.
The letter stated, "Even in death, the UP government was not moved by the pleas and tears of the victim and gravest of grave violation of the human rights of the victim, her family was locked up in their home and her body was forcibly taken in the fields at 2 am and cremated by the police officials. No family member was allowed to cremate the body and in death, the family could not be with their daughter."
A 19-year-old girl was gang-raped in Hathras on September 14 and yesterday she succumbed to her injuries at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital. When her mortal remains were taken to her native place, the UP Police and administration allegedly cremated her body forcefully without the family's consent or their presence, in the night.
The DCW said the incident was allegedly played down by the police and the local administration as a dispute between villages to cover it up.
The Commission has asked for the immediate suspension and punitive action against the police and administrative officials who facilitated this cover-up, saying "every possible fundamental and human right of the victim was violated by the UP government and its police, in life and in death."
The incident exposed the absolute apathy and disregard of the system towards women, the letter stated, adding that despite the victim in this case being left in the fields with severe injuries, the police failed to register an FIR for five days.
The DCW letter pointed out that the UP government also failed to move the victim to a Delhi hospital until September 28, when she breathed her last.
"The Hathras gang-rape and murder has once again exposed the complete apathy and disregard our system shows towards its daughters and mothers," it stated.
( With inputs from ANI )
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