A senior Uttar Pradesh police officer has said that the 20-year-old Dalit woman whose murder in Hathras has sparked nationwide outrage, spoke about rape more than a week after the incident. A forensic report of her viscera suggested that she was not raped.
Senior police officer Prashant Kumar said that no possibilities were being ruled out till the investigation ends, and that rape charges were filed based on the woman’s complaint. The forensic report, however, could not find sperm in samples.
‘We have always believed the version of the victim from Day 1. The FIR was lodged under the proper section. When the victim came along with her brother and mother to the police station after an hour of the incident [on Sept 14], we registered the FIR under proper sections and she was sent to the hospital,’ NDTV quoted Kumar as saying.
‘Then she was shifted to Aligarh Muslim University Hospital. Therefore the first time on September 22, she talked about the sexual assault and we immediately added those sections and arrested everyone,’ he added.
‘On September 25, the forensic samples were taken by doctors and the examination was done and then keeping into consideration her medical condition, for the better treatment she was shifted to Delhi and unfortunately there she expired,’ he said.
‘Today we have received the report of [forensic laboratory] FSL which clearly says that there is no sperm or any other stain which is available on the sample which was collected. Now, investigating officer is duty-bound to consider all the evidence available and reach on some conclusion,’ Kumar further said.
On being asked if the police had complete ruled out rape, he said: ‘I am nobody to conclude the investigation on camera. [The investigation] is still continuing. Since the case of mass rape and this kind of things were being floated everywhere, it was my duty to clarify that FSL report has come and it is not pointing towards rape.’
A 20-year-old woman from the Scheduled Caste community from western Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, who was allegedly 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. All four accused have been arrested and sent to jail under the charge of gang-rape and murder.
Also Read: Post-Mortem Report Of Hathras Rape-Murder Victim Reveals Heart-Wrenching Details
