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The family of the 19-year-old Dalit woman who was gangraped and murdered in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras has alleged that she was forcibly cremated. According to the family, the police took away her body for the last rites in the middle of the night.
"The police have forcibly taken the dead body, and my father along with them for cremation. When my father reached Hathras, he was immediately taken (to the crematorium) by the police," the woman's brother told news agency PTI.
The victim's body reached her village around midnight. The cremation was done by 3 AM on Wednesday, September 30.
Villagers claimed that the administration pressed for cremation at the earliest even as they wanted to take the body of the woman to her house, Hindustan Times reported.
The cremation took place in the village while the passage for the ambulance was blocked.
Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police (SP) Vikrant Veer denied any "urgency" by police in cremation. However, cremations usually do not take place at night.
Police further claimed that the cremation was carried out by the family members, adding that the cremation was done as usual after the body reached Boolgarhi village in Hathras district.
He said that the situation in the village is calm, however, heavy police force has been deployed.
The 19-year-old Dalit woman from western Uttar Pradesh's Hathras, who was brutally assaulted and gang-raped by four upper-caste men from her village, died nearly two weeks after the attack. She was fighting for her life in the intensive care unit of a government hospital.
The incident took place on September 14 at a village in the district, some 200 km from Delhi.
Doctors at the hospital said that the woman's tongue was cut and she has multiple fractures all over her body. All four accused have been arrested and sent to jail on the charge of gang-rape and murder.
Also Read: Uttar Pradesh: 20-Yr-Old Dalit Woman Dies Nearly Two Weeks After Gang-Rape, Torture By Four Men
