Hathras case: SIT probe completed, media allowed to enter victim’s village

Joint Magistrate Prem Prakash Meena refuted allegations that the administration had confined the victim's family and confiscated their phones.

Hathras: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has completed its probe into the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman after an alleged gang-rape, a Hathras administration official said on Saturday.

The administration has also lifted restrictions on the media’s entry into the village, a day after outsiders, including politicians, were barred from meeting the victim’s family due to the ongoing SIT probe, the official said.

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“Only the entry of media has been allowed into the village of the victim as the probe of the SIT has completed,” Joint Magistrate Prem Prakash Meena told reporters.

He also refuted allegations that the administration had confined the victim’s family and confiscated their phones.

Amid country-wide outrage over the incident, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on Wednesday formed a three-member SIT which was instructed to submit its report by October 14, according to officials.

The Hathras administration had on Thursday clamped prohibitory orders under CrPC section 144, which bars assembly of more than four people, in the district where political parties had reached and staged protest to demand justice for the young woman, who died earlier this week, a fortnight after her alleged gang-rape here.