A PIL seeking either a CBI probe or a SIT investigation in the gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district will be heard by Supreme Court today. The petitioners have urged the apex court to pass appropriate orders for a fair investigation either by the CBI or the SIT under a sitting or retired Supreme Court or High Court judge, and transfer the case to Delhi as Uttar Pradesh authorities “had failed to take action against the accused”.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, will take up the PIL filed by social activist Satyama Dubey and advocates Vishal Thakre and Rudra Pratap Yadav.

Meanwhile, four people, said said to have links with alleged radical group Popular Front of India (PFI) and an associate outfit, were arrested at Mathura on Monday while they were on their way to Hathras from Delhi. Police said the four were taken into custody at Mathura’s Math toll plaza where the police were checking vehicles after receiving a tip off that some suspicious people were on their way to Hathras from Delhi.

The four were in a car and identified themselves as Atiq-ur Rehman of Muzaffarnagar, Siddique of Malappuram, Masood Ahmed of Bahraich and Alam of Rampur, the police said, adding their mobile phones, laptop and some literature, which could have an impact on peace and order, were seized. During interrogation, it came to light that they had links with the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its associate organisation Campus Front of India (CFI), the police said, adding further their interrogation is underway.

The Popular Front of India (PFI), an alleged radical group, has been accused of funding certain protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that took place across the country earlier this year. The Uttar Pradesh police had earlier sought a ban on the organization.

National Chairman of All India Confederation of SC/ST Organizations Udit Raj and his supporters were also briefly stopped by Ghaziabad police at UP Gate on Monday while he was heading to Hathras district to meet the victim’s family. The former BJP MP, who later quit the party and joined the Congress last year, was later granted permission to head to Hathras with a delegation of only six vehicles, police said.

Hathras has been in news after a 19-year-old woman was allegedly raped on September 14 in a village in the district and she succumbed to her injuries a fortnight later at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. Her hurried cremation in the dead of the night, allegedly without the parents’ consent, created further outrage. Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath referred to recent incidents and said anarchist elements are trying to trigger communal and caste violence in the state