The biggest unanswered questions in the Hathras case

Hathras (UP), Oct 5: It has been exactly seven days since the 19-year-old Dalit girl succumbed to alleged assault injuries in a Delhi hospital and the media has been pursuing the story with a madness that is rarely seen.
Despite the fact that hours of footage on TV channels and reams of paper in the print media have been spent on the story, there are still questions that remain unanswered in the Hathras incident where the girl was allegedly raped and strangulated by four men belonging to upper caste Thakur families in Boolgarhi village.
RAPE OR NO RAPE? The girl, in the video footage taken by TV channels in the Delhi hospital, is heard saying that she was raped before being strangulated. Her own mother makes different claims in videos taken before and after her daughter’s death. In one video, she alleges that Sandeep, one of the accused, tried to strangulate the girl and ran away when the mother called out for help. In another video, she claims that her daughter was sexually assaulted.
The girl’s brother, who is now also being accused of honour killing, has said that his sister was found without clothes in the field.
The question is that why is the family changing its stand repeatedly? As a family member of the accused says, “It is abundantly clear that the family knows that it will get more money and more sympathy if it pushes the rape angle and that this is what they are doing this. Can rape take place at 9.30.in the morning in a field in a village when everyone is out working?”