Protests in India after family of Hathras gang rape victim alleges police cremated body without consent

NEW DELHI: Protests sparked in India after the family of a woman gang-raped in the Indian district of Hathras revealed that the police cremated the body of the 19-year-old without their consent. Abhishek Mathur, an Indian journalist who had seen the cremation from a distance, told the BBC that the police kept the family and media away from the funeral pyre. The victim’s brother was quoted by the BBC that police officials were pressurizing the family to cremate the woman immediately. He added that the police took her body after the family refused to bow into the pressure. "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 was quoted as saying by the Indian Express. Police did not offer an explanation but multiple relatives protested against the 3 am cremation, saying they wanted the body to lie at the family home for a time so absent loved ones could return to pay their respects. Police chief Vikrant Vir said the cremation took place with the consent of the family. "The police provided the firewood and helped the family in the cremation. Most of the family members were present at the cremation. We did not want any outsider to create law and order disturbances," Vir told AFP. On September 14 the victim was found lying in a pool of blood and was paralyzed from injuries to her neck and spine after she went missing while heading to fields in the village. The tragedy has sparked uproar and lit up social media in India, with politicians, Bollywood personalities, cricket stars, and women´s rights activists condemning the attack. On Tuesday hundreds of people including the victim's relatives gathered outside the Delhi hospital to protest against the attack before authorities deployed riot police forcing them to disperse. Officers detained Chandrashekhar Azad, a Dalit politician, as he led demonstrators demanding the death penalty for the accused men. Another protest was due to take place in Delhi on Wednesday as well as in Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow. The four alleged attackers have been arrested. India's 200 million low-caste "untouchable" Dalits have long faced discrimination and abuse, and campaigners say attacks on them have increased during the coronavirus pandemic. The latest assault comes months after four men were hanged for the brutal gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012 — a case that came to symbolize the nation's problem with sexual violence.