The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of the Hathras incident of the rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl and has issued a notice to the Yogi Adityanath government.
The Commission has directed the state government to provide adequate protection to the family of the deceased, keeping in view the gravity of the matter and also the aspect of the witness protection as there is apparent rift between two communities.
The government has been asked to respond to the notice within four weeks.
The DGP has been asked to look personally into the matter to ensure a speedy trial so that the culprits could be punished by the competent court without any further delay.
The notice says that in the current scenario, it is necessary that the family of the deceased as well as other members of the SC community residing in the village are provided proper protection by the police. Both the authorities are expected to submit their report, within the stipulated time.
The 19-year-old girl belonging to Scheduled Caste was allegedly raped and brutalized on September 14 when she had gone to collect fodder.
She was admitted to the Aligarh Muslim University's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and shifted to the Safdarjung hospital in Delhi on Monday. She succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday.
Inspector General, Piyush Mordia, denied that the girl had been raped and cited the post-mortem report to prove his point. He said that she had been strangulated by the accused.
He said that all the four accused named by the victim had been arrested.
The dent drew national outrage when the police allegedly cremated the girl's mortal remains on the outskirts of her village in the early hours of Wednesday.
The family claimed that they were not allowed to see the girl's face for the last time and hold the cremation as per tradition.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Wednesday evening, spoke to the victim's father and assured him of strict action against the accused.
The Chief Minister also announced a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for the family and a job for one member, besides a house.
The Chief Minister has also set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident.
( With inputs from IANS )