Hathras Dalit woman gang-rape and death case

On September 14, 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped and brutally assaulted by four men in a field in Hathras district, Uttar Pradesh, India. She suffered severe spinal injuries, a severed tongue, and other trauma. She was airlifted to a hospital in Delhi but succumbed to her injuries on September 29. In a highly controversial move, the Uttar Pradesh Police forcibly cremated her body in the dead of night, without her family's consent, which was widely condemned as an attempt to destroy evidence and silence the victim's Dalit family. Following a national outcry and massive protests, the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation for an impartial probe. The incident exposed deep-rooted caste discrimination and the failures of local law enforcement.

In March 2023, a Special CBI court in Uttar Pradesh convicted three of the four accused—Sandeep, Ravi, and Lavkush—for gang rape and murder, sentencing them to death. The fourth accused, Ram Singh, was acquitted due to insufficient evidence. The court described the crime as "rarest of rare."

The primary dispute centered on the police's midnight cremation of the victim's body, which destroyed critical forensic evidence and violated the family's religious and legal rights. There were serious allegations of an initial delay in filing the FIR, caste-biased police apathy, and attempts to coerce the family into a settlement. The transfer of the investigation to the CBI after prolonged national outrage was also a major point of contention.

The case triggered massive nationwide protests, drawing comparisons to the 2012 Delhi gang rape. It powerfully highlighted the extreme vulnerability of Dalit women to caste-based sexual violence and systemic police indifference. The midnight cremation generated widespread outrage, leading to intense debates on institutional caste bias, destruction of evidence, and the rights of sexual assault victims. The outcry pressured authorities into a CBI probe and renewed calls for legal reforms to ensure faster justice and enhanced protection for marginalized communities.