An Indian court has acquitted three of the four men accused of the rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in 2020.
The teenager was admitted to hospital in Delhi after the attack in Hathras district of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
She later died of her injuries.
The case had sparked global outrage after authorities allegedly forcibly cremated her body without her family’s consent.
On Thursday, a court in Hathras town said that only one of the four accused – who all belonged to a higher caste – was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and for offences under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which deals with crimes against Dalits and tribal people.
The case had sparked huge protests in India after disturbing details about the alleged crime emerged.
The woman’s family told the BBC’s Geeta Pandey in 2021 that they found her in a field, battered and bruised, barely conscious and naked from the waist downwards. Her spine was broken, she was bleeding and vomiting blood.
She had a huge gash on her tongue, which made it difficult for her to speak. But in her statement to the police, she had alleged that she was raped.
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