New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation has drawn up a list of police lapses in its chargesheet in the alleged gangrape of a 20-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras village that had shocked the nation.

The agency mentions lapses on at least four counts, starting with the police not writing down the woman’s oral statement. The police also twice ignored her allegation of sexual assault and did not conduct any medical examination, which led to loss of forensic evidence, the agency said December 21.

In the chargesheet, the agency said it has been investigating the role of erring UP Police officials.

On September 14, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped in Hathras district, Uttar Pradesh, allegedly by four upper caste men. After fighting for her life for two weeks, she died in a Delhi hospital.

Initially, it was reported that one accused had tried to kill her, although later in her statement to the magistrate, the victim named four accused as having raped her. The victim’s brother claimed that no arrests were made in the first 10 days after the incident took place. After her death, the victim was forcibly cremated by the police without the consent of her family, a claim denied by the police.

The case and its subsequent handling has received widespread media attention and condemnation from across the country, and was the subject of protests against Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath government by activists and opposition.

The postmortem report, however, gave a clean chit to the men, saying there was no evidence of sexual assault, though it mentioned tears in her private parts. The report said the woman suffered multiple fractures, paralysis, severe spinal injury and a deep gash in her tongue.

Thereafter, the main accused claimed that he and the others were being framed in the case and it was the woman’s family that was torturing her for her relationship with him.

The CBI, which took over the case after orders from the Supreme Court, said the woman’s oral statement was not put in writing at the Chandpa Police Station when she came on September 14. It was written down five days later and she was medically examined for sexual assault only on September 22 — eight days after the incident.

The delay led to the loss of forensic evidences in the case, the agency said.

“The victim on 14.9.2020 at PS Chandpa uttered the word ‘zabardasti’ (use of force) but it was neglected,” the chargesheet said. No medical examination was made or rape laws applied.

“Again on 19.9.2020 the girl expressed in her statement to the police the word Chedkhani (molestation)… that time only Section 354 added but again neither police requested/referred for medical examination in light of sexual assault,” the chargesheet read.

“Only on 22.9.2020, after victim explicitly stated the word ‘balathkhar (rape)’ against the four accused, the sexual assault examination was carried out by the medical authorities,” the chargesheet read.

Source: ndtv.com