SC hands over monitoring of Hathras rape case to Allahabad High Court

Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 27

The Supreme Court on Tuesday handed over the monitoring of the Hathras rape case to the Allahabad High Court and made it clear that all aspects of the case will be looked into by the high court.

However, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde kept open the issue of shifting of trial to Delhi in view of the ongoing investigation.

The top court made it clear that the CBI will file its status reports before the high court.

Accepting Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's suggestion, the top court asked the Allahabad High Court to remove the name of the victim from its orders.

Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had recommended a CBI probe into the case even as it denied that the 19-year-old Dalit woman was raped by four men in Hathras on September 14.

The woman had died on September 29 at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital during treatment and her body was cremated at night near her home on September 30.

The Supreme Court had on October 15 reserved its order on several pleas seeking protection for victim's family, shifting of trial to Delhi and monitoring of the case.

While hearing a PIL on the issue, CJI Bobde had on October 6 termed the incident as “shocking, extraordinary and horrible” and asked the UP government to spell out if a witness protection plan was in place and if the family had hired an advocate.

During the hearing, Mehta had told the court on behalf of the state government that a three-fold protection mechanism was in place for the victim's family and witnesses. He had said the victim family has engaged advocate Seema Kushwaha to represent them.