New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has rejected a plea by the family members of the 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died as a result of a brutal gang rape at Hathras, seeking release from the alleged “illegal detention” by the UP police in their native village.
A division bench of Justices Prakash Padia and Pritinker Diwaker on Thursday noted that the state government had already been directed to file affidavits clarifying its stand in the entire case by the Supreme Court, according to a report in The Hindu.
“In the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case, judicial propriety demands that it will not be proper for this Court to entertain the present petition on merits, especially when security has been provided to petitioners 1 to 6 and other family members of the deceased victim-girl on the observation made by the apex court,” said the high court and added that similar directions had also been issued by the Lucknow bench of the HC in a suo motu petition on October 1.
The court added that if the petitioners had any grievance, they were at liberty to file an appropriate petition or application before the apex court.
The habeas corpus petition had been filed by the family in the high court through the Akhil Bharatiya Valmiki Mahapanchayat.
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The petition also sought a direction to the administration to allow the victim’s family to move to Delhi as per their free will. The petition alleged that the family had been “prevented from meeting or communicating freely, thereby violating their Fundamental Right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to receive information”.
The state government counsel objected to the petition saying that the matter was already sub-judice before the Supreme Court and hence the plea before the high court was not maintainable.
Activists hold placards during a protest against the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman who was allegedly gang-raped two weeks ago in Hathras (UP), outside Chaitya Bhoomi in Mumbai, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. Photo: PTI/Mitesh Bhuvad
The high court’s observation came on the same day when the four accused in the gang rape case sent a letter to the district police chief from the Aligarh Jail, where the four are lodged. In the letter, the accused Sandeep Singh claimed that he and three others were being falsely implicated and sought “justice”. The accused also alleged that he was “friends” with the victim and that her family did not approve of their friendship and further claimed that the victim had been beaten by her brother and mother after he met her in the fields on the day of the incident
In response to news of the letter, a female relative of the victim said that “plans” to protect the four accused were being put in place. “Stories are being pitched to save them. Everything is theirs, the ministers and the MPs are theirs. Who do we have? Poor people don’t have anyone except for God,” the woman said.
In three separate videos, the 19-year-old victim spoke about her ordeal and said that the assailants forced themselves onto her.
“Creating a narrative that defames a woman’s character and holding her somehow responsible for crimes committed against her is revolting and regressive,” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said and added that the woman deserved “justice not slander”.