Hathras rape victim's cremation act of 'destroying evidence': Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday lashed out at the Uttar Pradesh government over the cremation of the Hathras rape victim, accusing it of “destroying evidence”. The 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died in a Delhi hospital a fortnight after she was gangraped in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras, was cremated in the early hours on Wednesday.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday lashed out at the Uttar Pradesh government over the cremation of the Hathras rape victim, accusing it of “destroying evidence”. Taking to Twitter, the former state chief minister said cremating the rape victim under the administration's "pressure" without the "consent" of her family was against the culture.

“This act of destroying evidence is condemnable,” he tweeted. The BJP government not only committed a sin by doing so but also committed a crime, Akhilesh said. The 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died in a Delhi hospital a fortnight after she was gangraped in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras, was cremated in the early hours on Wednesday. Her family alleged that the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the dead of the night. However, police officers claimed that the cremation was carried out "as per wishes of the family". On September 14, the woman had gone to the fields with her mother and went missing soon after. She was alter found beaten and tortured. She was first admitted to Aligarh Muslim University's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital and then shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on Monday.