Perhaps our country is too obsessed with conspiracies…

Or too naïve to believe anything a politician says.

“Those who do not like development, they want to incite caste and communal riots in the country and state and want to stop development… These people want to gain political mileage in the backdrop of riots, and that is why they are hatching new conspiracies every day,” said Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, alleging it’s a part of an international conspiracy.

(Courtesy: NDTV)

His staunch followers would certainly believe anything he says – and there’s less people can do to convince them.

But to put things into context, in case you didn’t follow the news, here’s what happened:

A 19-year old woman was gang-raped on 14th September 2020 allegedly by 4 men in the upper caste. She sustained many brutal injuries; almost mutilated.

In one of the two videos allegedly shot on the same day (14th September 2020) at Chandpa police station and a local clinic in Hathras, the victim is heard saying that the men strangled her neck because she resisted “zabardasti”, a term for rape.

(Courtesy: TOI)

A case was registered on 20th September; after so many days.

Police recorded the victim’s statement on 22nd September.

The forensic sample was sent to the forensic laboratory on 25th September, 11 days after the rape. Per the guidelines and protocols, all the evidence must be collected within 4 days; if not, the chances of finding evidence later gets significantly reduced. In this case, it took 11 days for forensic examination. So, the chances of finding any evidence were almost non-existent.

The victim was transferred to Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi on September 28th.

The victim died on the 29th of September.

Her body was cremated at 2:00 am on 29th September without the presence or consent of her family. Her brother claims they were locked in the house when her body was cremated.

Later on 29th September, a video recording of Hathras District Magistrate went viral on social media where he’s basically threatening the family members of the victim. He’s heard saying “Do not finish your credibility. These media people... some left today and tomorrow more will leave. Only we will be here with you. Ok? It is up to you whether you want to change your statement or not. We can also change.”

On October 1st 2020, the UP police officially released a note saying, “Putting to rest all the speculation, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report on the vaginal sample of the 19-year-old girl of Hathras has revealed that she was not raped.” [Again, note that the samples were collected after 11 days. There was no way they were going to find any evidence. Almost every expert on the subject says so.

Thereon, the UP police locked the family in the following days and prevented anyone, including media, to meet them. "They have taken the phone. My family have sent me here to call the media for speaking. I ducked down and came via the field. They are not letting us come out neither are they allowing the media to come in. They are threatening us as well," said the minor family member.

On October 4th, CM Yogi Adityanath recommended the case to CBI.

In all this, CM Yogi Adityanath and his government also hired a PR firm that’s seemingly handing the public narrative of this Hathras rape case.

Almost every political party, including a few names from the BJP itself, stood up for this victim. Millions of Indians are demanding justice for this girl. Except for a couple of news channels, almost every media house is demanding justice in this case.

Some questions remain unanswered:

Why her body was cremated in the middle of the night without the family’s consent and presence?

Why her samples were taken after 11 days?

Why did the police stop the media from talking to the victim’s family?