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Protests in the state of Uttar Pradesh after the death of a 20-year-old
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SAJJAD HUSSAIN / AFP
The Indian police's controversial handling of a fatal gang rape has personal consequences.
The responsible police chief in the city of Hathras was suspended for failure of office, as were four of his employees.
The head of government of the affected state announced this on Twitter.
In mid-September, a 20-year-old woman was allegedly gang rape victim in Hathras.
According to local media reports, the family found the seriously injured woman in a field outside their village - naked, covered in blood and with a broken spine.
The 20-year-old, who is from the lowest Indian caste, died two weeks later.
Four men from their village, all of a higher caste, were arrested.
The now suspended police officers are said to have taken up the family's complaint only reluctantly.
Investigations were reportedly dragged on for days.
The woman was apparently only examined eight days after the crime.
At the same time, the police are accused of having cremated the 20-year-old's body in the night and in the fog in the crematorium without first asking the family's permission.
This had enraged many so-called Dalits, members of the victim's lower caste.
The police later said they wanted to avoid riots and therefore cremated the woman at night.
Last Thursday, local police finally said a forensic investigation had shown the 20-year-old had not been raped.
No sperm was found in samples.
Rather, the results of various investigations had "uncovered the conspiracy of those who tried to plunge the state into caste riots".
The investigators contradicted statements of the 20-year-olds, her mother and the treating hospital in New Delhi.
The work of the police is now to be processed legally.
A court scheduled a survey of police representatives and relatives of the 20-year-olds for October 12.
Sexual violence against women is considered a massive problem in India.
According to data from Indian authorities, a woman is raped every 15 minutes on average in the country of over 1.3 billion people.
By no means all cases are recorded.
Many Indian women are silent.
Only particularly brutal cases make the headlines.
In the patriarchal society of India, where the caste system is still important to many people even though it has been officially abolished, Dalit in particular often suffer from discrimination.
The family of the 20-year-olds now also fears repression.
"We are not safe in this village," said the dead brother on Indian television.
His family is now "more than ever" on the radar of those who would deny the alleged crime.
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