The prime accused in the 2020 Hathras gang-rape and murder case was on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Uttar Pradesh. He is identified as Sandeep Sisodia.
The three other accused in the case were acquitted in the case. They are identified as Ravi, Ramu, and Luv Kush.
Earlier, Sisodia was convicted under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the SC/ST Act.
The case pertains to the alleged gang rape and murder of a 20-year-old Dalit woman by four upper caste men in Bulgarhi village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district. She died at the Safdarjung hospital in Delhi two weeks later during treatment.
The Hathras case had sparked huge protests across the nation after the victim was forcibly cremated in the middle of the night against the wishes of the family by the Uttar Pradesh Police and district administration, fuelling accusations of a cover-up by the Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in UP.
The case was referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the UP government after the alleged apathy of the administration snowballed into a political storm with Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress (TMC), and other Opposition leaders of the state from Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal staging massive protests.
