Lucknow:

Nineteen FIRs have been filed by the Uttar Pradesh police in the aftermath of the alleged gang rape and torture in Hathras of a young woman who died last week. Facing criticism over its handling of the case, the police have alleged an attempt to disturb peace in the state and listed sedition, conspiracy and promoting religious hatred in the main FIR or First Information Report filed in Hathras.

The cases have been filed across the state just a day after UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed that the Hathras incident was being exploited by those who were upset at his government’s progress.

The charges listed in the main FIR include inciting caste divides, religious discrimination, doctoring electronic evidence, a conspiracy against the state and defamation. The charges tie in with the administration’s assertion that there is more to the case involving the fatal assault on the young Dalit woman. “There is a deep conspiracy in Hathras, we will investigate the truth,” senior police officer Prashant Kumar said.

With opposition politicians visiting the woman’s family, the UP police has also filed cases for violation of distancing and other safety rules for Covid.

Yogi Adityanath had recently warned BJP workers of “conspiracies against his government” and an attempt to incite caste and religious riots. “Those who do not like development, they want to incite caste and communal riots in the country and state and want to stop development,” the Chief Minister had said.

Yogi Adityanath’s government and the UP police have been facing widespread condemnation over the handling of the Hathras horror.

The 20-year-old woman was assaulted by four upper caste men at her village on September 14 and left with horrific wounds including fractures, a spinal injury that left her paralysed and a gash in her tongue. The UP police, accused of a slow response to the woman’s complaint, has alleged that there was no rape or gang rape involved and that a forensic report proves it. That claim has been questioned by experts who point out that the samples were taken 11 days after the woman was attacked.

Yogi Adityanath’s administration has also been accused of trying to cover up the crime blamed on upper caste Thakurs. After the woman’s death, the UP police took away her body and forcibly cremated it at 2.30 am, refusing to hand it over to her family.