Father alleges replay of Hathras incident, UP Police deny

In a horrifying replay of the 2020 Hathras incident, the family of a 16-year-old girl who was allegedly gang-raped and killed, has alleged that the police forced them to cremate the minor before they could even arrange for her last rites.

The incident led to massive protests on Tuesday.

The incident, according to reports, took place on January 21 but the family kept quiet after police threatened them and asked them not to talk about the crime.

It was only when word spread and some people tweeted about it that the incident came out in the open.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Bulandshahr, Santosh Singh, said that the police 'never forced the family to cremate their daughter' and that the matter was being 'politicised' by vested interests.

He further said, "The girl was friendly with the boy. The main accused thought that she was cheating on him so he took her out and shot her. He also slashed his own arms and neck with a blade. The family demanded that the case be transferred to another police station and we have agreed."

The father of the minor girl in Bulandshahr, meanwhile, said that the police 'forced us to cremate her in the night without giving us an opportunity to conduct proper rituals'.

The victim's father, an OBC, said his daughter was friends with an upper-caste boy.

The boy allegedly came to the girl's village and asked her to come with him for an outing. She went with him.

"Later, I got a call from the police saying that the body of my daughter was lying near a tube well on the outskirts of the village. I rushed to the spot but by the time I reached they had taken her body to the post-mortem house. Cops misbehaved with me when I questioned them. We were given my daughter's body after almost 24 hours and then the cops forced me to cremate her immediately," he said.

"When I said that it looked like she had been violated, cops asked me to shut up and go home," said the father. He added that around four people were seen with his daughter near the site.

An FIR has been lodged under the relevant sections of the IPC and POCSO Act after several protests erupted locally.

Two out of the four accused have been arrested so far.