All four accused in the Hathras incident have written a letter to the Superintendent of Police, Vineet Jaiswal, claiming that they are innocent.
In the hand-written letter, the four accused — Sandeep, Ramu, Ravi and Lavkush, have admitted that they were friendly with the victim and would often talk to her on phone.
They said in the letter that the girl’s family was not happy with their friendship.
The letter also said that none of them were at the spot where the girl was beaten.
On the day of the incident, the four accused admitted to have met the girl but said that they left the place when her mother and brother objected.
They said that they later came to know that the girl had been beaten by her mother and brother for meeting the accused.
The accused have stated that they have been wrongly framed by the girl’s family and sought justice in the matter.
Also read: Hathras Gang Rape And Murder : Everything You Need To Know
The letter carries thumb impressions of the main accused, Sandeep, who wrote the letter, and the three others — Lavkush, Ravi and Ramu. The girl, in her dying statement before a magistrate, had said she had been gang-raped by the four. She named them.
“The jail administration received the letter, addressed to Hathras SP, on Thursday. It has been forwarded,” said Aligarh district prison’s jailer Pramod Kumar Singh. Jail super Ashok Singh also confirmed that the letter had been sent.
“She (the girl) lived in my village and I was friendly with her. We would speak over the phone sometimes. Her family did not approve of this. I had met her on the day of the incident. Her mother and brother were with her…she asked me to leave and I came home,” the letter said. “Later, I got to know that she had been beaten up badly by her mother and brother. It left her severely injured,” it added. It also pleaded innocence on behalf of the three others and sought release. The victim’s father said the letter was a ploy.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi tweeted, “Creating a narrative that defames a woman’s character and holding her responsible is revolting and regressive. A heinous crime has been committed at Hathras, leaving a 20-year-old Dalit woman dead. She deserves justice, not slander”
All the four accused in Hathras incident belong to the upper caste and apparently that matters.