The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday took over the Hathras rape and murder case. The agency’s Ghaziabad unit has re-registered FIRs that were earlier filed by the UP police. The agency may also probe related FIRs of sedition, disrupting law and order and conspiracy that UP police had registered after violent protests rocked Hathras.
Earlier, the Department of Personnel and Training issued notification, paving the way for CBI to take over the case. The Uttar Pradesh government had approached the Supreme court requesting for a court-monitored CBI probe but in the absence of clear direction from the apex court, recommendations were sent to Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of personnel which is the administrative ministry in-charge of CBI.
The probe teams will be dispatched to the crime scene along with forensic experts immediately after the registration of an FIR, officials said.
The Dalit woman had died of grievous injuries at a Delhi hospital on September 29, a fortnight after she was allegedly raped at her village by four upper caste men. Besides the alleged gang-rape case, the Uttar Pradesh government has sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the FIR related to the alleged criminal conspiracy to spread caste conflict, instigating violence, incidents of vicious propaganda by sections of media and political interests, they said.