New Delhi / LUCKNOW

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Monday slammed the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to forcibly cremate a Dalit rape victim in the middle of the night in Hathras district, as it started hearing the sensitive case that roiled India and sparked angry street protests.

A division bench of justices Pankaj Mithal and Rajan Roy recorded the statements of five family members of the 19-year-old woman who died roughly three weeks ago, and senior state government officials. It fixed November 2 as the next date of hearing. Media was barred from the heavily secured hearing attended by roughly 15 people.

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The High Court warned against “character assassination” of the 20-year-old in Hathras, whose death last month after brutal torture and alleged gangrape and the subsequent 2 am cremation by the police, outraged the country. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had taken up the case suo motu and was examining the role of the police in the matter, including the secret cremation.

In its order after yesterday’s hearing, the court said, “No one should indulge in character assassination of the victim just as the accused should not be pronounced guilty before a fair trial”.

With four so-called upper caste men accused the case, the community has been vocal in defending them. Several rounds of meetings were held over the last weeks, and there have been claims that one of the men had been in a relationship. It was her her family that was involved in her death, in what is known as honour killing, the community claimed.

There have been reports that the family was alerted about the relationship after more than a hundred phone calls between the woman and the accused.

The claims of no wrongdoing by the accused gathered steam after forensic reports negated the possibility of rape. The question, though, remained open since the samples were collected days after the alleged event.

Yesterday, the court reminded the police about the rape laws, which accept a dying declaration from an assaulted woman as a fact.

“How do you know she wasn’t raped? Has the investigation concluded? Please go through the new rape law of 2013,” the court told senior police officer Prashant Kumar.