SIT completes probe in Hathras gang-rape case, likely to submit report to UP CM soon

Lucknow: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the alleged gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh has completed its investigation and may soon submit its report to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, said reports on Friday.

News agency IANS cited a member of the SIT as saying that though the investigations had been completed, the panel will need time to prepare an exhaustive report.

The Yogi Adityanath government had set up the SIT on September 30 and initially gave seven days to probe the Hathras case. However, it was later given 10-day extension on its request. The 10-day extension expires on Saturday.

The SIT members -- Home Secretary Bhagwan Swaroop, IG Chandra Prakash and SP Poonam -- are still in Hathras even as the CBI took over the case and begun its own investigations.

The SIT and CBI have questioned the families of the victim as well as the accused, apart from recording the statements of villagers, police officials and hospital staff where the victim was taken for treatment.

The Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped and strangulated in a millet field in Boolgarhi village on September 14. She was admitted at the Hathras district hospital and then shifted to the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital in Aligarh Muslim University.

As her condition deteriorated, she was shifted to the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi where she died on September 29. Her body was taken back to Boolgarhi in the wee hours of September 30 and cremated allegedly without the family`s consent.