Police take away the father and brother of the 19-year-old Hathras victim from Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi, after persuading them to end a dharna on Tuesday. (Express photo: Tashi Tobgyal)

The body of the 19-year-old Dalit woman who was raped and murdered, allegedly by four upper caste men in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, was cremated a little after 3 am Wednesday — with her family saying police had forcibly performed the last rites late at night even though they wanted to bring her body home one last time.

“It appears that my sister has been cremated; the police are not telling us anything. We begged them to let us bring her body inside the house one last time, but they didn’t listen to us,” the woman’s brother told The Indian Express at 3.30 am Wednesday.

The woman had died at Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital on Tuesday, two weeks after she was attacked while helping her mother in the fields. Around midnight, her body reached her village in Hathras in an ambulance.

At 1 am, one of the victim’s brothers, who was in the village, told The Indian Express, “The ambulance is on the main road; police are not letting us take the body inside the house. They have switched on the lights of the cremation ground and are forcing us to perform her last rites right now. We don’t want to cremate her in the middle of the night; we want to take her home.”

Read | Hathras gangrape: ‘My daughter said she wanted to come home… She was conscious again, I thought she would survive’

At the time, he said his father and brother were yet to reach home from Delhi. “What is the rush? Our father hasn’t even reached home,” he had said.

Two hours later, videos and photos from the village showed a lone pyre, and no family members near it. At 3.30 am, her brother alleged, “Police started being aggressive when we refused to cremate her. When my relatives tried to see what the police were doing, they kicked us, broke one of our relative’s bangles. Out of fear, we have locked ourselves in. Why are they doing this?”

Videos also showed the victim’s mother pleading with police officials to let the body be brought home one last time.

Prem Prakash Meena, the Joint Magistrate of Hathras, meanwhile told ANI, “The last rites of the victim have been performed. Police and administration will ensure that the perpetrators of the crime are brought to justice.”

At 2.16 am, the Hathras Police had tweeted that the cremation will be done “as per the wishes of the family”.

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App.