UP government urges Supreme Court to direct CBI probe in Hathras case

New Delhi: The UP government told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the district administration was “forced” to cremate the Hathras victim under “severe, extraordinary circumstances”, “in the presence of family members who agreed to attend to avoid further violence” and urged the court to supervise the CBI probe into the incident.

The state affidavit, volunteered by Rajendra Pratap Singh, special secretary, home department, suggested that once the “postmortem of the victim is already conducted by Safdarjung, there cannot be any bad intention on the part of anyone to expedite the cremation, except to obviate the potential violent situation resulting from the planned caste divide by certain vested interests”.

The state, through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, told the court, which was examining pleas for an independent, impartial probe into the woman’s death, that the probe into the case was progressing fairly and strictly in accordance with the law. Mehta dubbed the incident as “shocking” as a young, innocent person had lost her life but said no one should “sensationalise” the incident or “create false narratives” regarding her death. He urged the SC to take over the supervision of the case and to “insulate” the probe from any “extraneous pressures”.


The bench, led by CJI SA Bobde, though, was reluctant to do so and instead sought to know from the state government whether the family and the witnesses in the case had been given adequate protection to ensure their security. The court also sought to know by next week if a lawyer had been assigned to the family to fight its case. The bench said it may further broaden the scope of the proceedings before the HC rather than step in itself.

The High Court had taken suo motu notice of the incident and demanded an explanation from the government on the hasty cremation. A hearing is scheduled for October 12.

The state affidavit in the SC also claimed the forensic examination of sexual assault on the young woman suggested no prima facie findings of rape. The findings of the Aligarh JN Medical Hospital that there were no abrasions, contusions, lacerations or swelling to prove it had been a rape was confirmed by the Agra forensic science lab findings, it claimed. It also claimed that the girl had first said molestation and later revised it to gangrape.