Hathras case: '3-fold protection mechanism' for victim's family members, UP govt tells SC

New Delhi: A "three-fold protection mechanism" has been put in place for the security of the family members of the Dalit victim who died after being assaulted and allegedly gang-raped by four upper-caste men in Hathras, the Uttar Pradesh government informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Stating that it is committed to provide complete security to the victim's family and witnesses to ensure a "free and fair investigation", the state government urged the apex court to direct the CBI to submit fortnightly status reports on the probe to the state government, which can be filed by the UP DGP in the Supreme Court.

"The state government, therefore, seeks indulgence of this court to be pleased to keep the above petition pending allowing the investigation by the CBI to be conducted under the supervision of this court in a time-bound manner," the UP government said.

Last week, the top court had called the Hathras incident "horrible… extraordinary and shocking".

The bench of Chief Justice of India S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, hearing a writ petition seeking a CBI probe or a court-appointed Special Investigation Team, had said it wanted to hear from the parties on the scope of the proceedings in the matter already before the Allahabad High Court and "how we can make them more relevant". The matter has now been transferred to the CBI, which has already started its probe.

In a compliance affidavit filed in the top court, the Yogi Adityanath-led government said "in order to ensure the security of victim's family/witnesses, three-fold protection mechanism has been devised" — armed constabulary component, civil police component comprising of guard, gunners and shadows and installation of CCTV cameras and lights.

Meanwhile, a fresh PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court in the incident, seeking registration of a criminal case under SC/ST Act against police personnel, medical staff and other government officials involved in the case as also a probe by a Special Task Force (STF).

Maharashtra-based Dalit rights activist Chetan Janardhan Kamble said he was constrained to file the PIL after some glaring facts were revealed regarding the state support for manipulating and destroying evidence in the Hathras case, from the affidavit filed by the UP government in the top court in another PIL.