Shocked our conscience: Allahabad HC takes suo moto cognisance of Hathras case

Besides taking cognisance of the case, the court in its 11-page order heavily relied on the reportage of the cremation of the dead victim by police without the consent of family members.

The court has summoned the top government and police officials on Oct 12, by which the State has been asked to respond.

Stating the incidents which took place following the death of the woman leading up to her cremation as something which "have shocked our conscience", the court said as quoted by Hindustan Times, "The State must respect a dead person by allowing the body of the person to be treated with dignity and unless it is required for the purposes of establishing a crime to ascertain the cause of death and be subjected to postmortem or for any scientific investigation, medical education or to save the life of another person in accordance with law, the preservation of the dead body and disposal in accordance with human dignity."

"We are inclined to examine as to whether there has been gross violation of the fundamental rights of the deceased victim and the family members of the victim; whether the State Authorities have acted oppressively high handedly and illegally to violate such rights."

Welcoming the order, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been leading the protest against the incident, tweeted, "A strong and encouraging order from the Lucknow bench of Alld HC. The entire nation is demanding justice for the Hathras rape victim. The HC order shines a ray of hope amidst the dark, inhuman and unjust treatment meted out to her family by the UP Govt."

The Yogi Adityanath government has come under attack after the 19-year old, who belongs to the lowest rung of caste system prevailing in the north Indian state, was allegedly dragged by her dupatta, gangraped by four men, got her spinal cord damaged and her tongue cut.

Two weeks after the incident, which occurred on Sept 14, the girl succumbed to her injuries at a Delhi hospital on Tuesday morning.

In an even more shocking incident, the dead body of the girl was cremated by police officials in the dead of night denying the family members a look at the victim for the last time in Uttar Pradesh, which is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The victim, a Dalit, had named her attackers in a statement on Sept 22.

The four accused, believed to be upper caste Thakurs, have been arrested.