Allahabad High Court summons top UP government officials in Hathras gangrape, murder case

A Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday summoned top Uttar Pradesh government officials to the court over the alleged gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh and her forcible cremation subsequently.

A bench of justices Rajan Roy and Jaspreet Singh issued summons to the Uttar Pradesh additional chief secretary, director-general of police and additional director general of police, asking them to be present before the court on October 12 to explain the case.

Taking suo moto cognisance of the September 14 gang-rape and subsequent death of the teenager, the bench also ordered the Hathras district magistrate and senior superintendent of police to appear before it.

The bench asked all officials to come prepared with all the relevant material and documents to apprise the court of their versions of the incident.

The court, which appeared especially upset over the police cremating the teen's body overnight allegedly forcibly in Hathras without her parent's consent, also asked officials to apprise the bench of the latest status of the probe into the alleged gang-rape and murder case.

The bench also asked the late teen's parent to come to the court to apprise it of their version of the incident and ordered the Hathras district administration to arrange for their travel to the court.