CCTV Footage From Hospital Where Hathras Survivor Was Taken On The Day Of The Incident "Deleted"

The CCTV camera footage from September 14, when the Hathras gangrape survivor was brought to the district hospital for the first time, was reportedly not backed up. When the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team reached the district hospital to investigate the alleged gangrape and death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman it found no trace of the CCTV footage from the day of the incident.

Also Read: 10 Things To Know About The Buxar Gangrape Case

"We can’t provide it,” Chief Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Indra Veer Singh, informed the officials. He added that the hospital was not instructed to save the footage. “Previous footage gets deleted every seven days and new footage gets recorded over it,” he claimed, adding that "the district administration and police had not asked for the footage at the time,"  TOI reported.

When asked why the police and administration had not sought the footage earlier, a police officer said the hospital has “nothing to do” with the investigation. “Unless a crime took place in the hospital or negligence was reported, this has no bearing on the criminal investigation. These are unrelated things. That is why CCTV footage was not taken into account,” the officer explained.

Father and brothers of Hathras survivor questioned

The CBI on Wednesday also summoned the father and the two brothers of the deceased survivor for questioning. They were reportedly grilled for over six hours. Her elder brother was questioned for "inconsistencies" in his testimony, a recent report claimed. “My husband was with the CBI yesterday on the incident spot. The CBI took away the slippers, ashes, and other things of the victim. We demand that the accused should be sent to another jail from Aligarh. They are not afraid. They are living there like they are staying at their home,” said sister-in-law of the deceased.

Also Read: Delhi, Hathras And Now Balrampur: India Continues To Be In Denial Of It’s Rape Culture

Hathras gangrape case

The 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gangraped by four upper-caste men on September 14. She died while undergoing treatment in Delhi on September 29. Following her death, the family claimed that UP police had “forcibly” cremated her body, which led to an outrage on social media. Later, on the case's first hearing at Allahabad High Court rapped UP government for the deceased survivor's hurried cremation and asked why was it carried out in the middle of the night. “Would you have burnt the body if the victim was from a well-to-do family?” the bench comprising of Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Rajan Roy, asked. “The court asked the District Magistrate – ‘What if it was a girl from a rich family? Would you have cremated her the same way?” Seema Kushwaha, the counsel for the woman’s family, told NDTV.

The next court hearing in the case is on November 2.

Feature Image Credit: PTI

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