The Union home ministry on Saturday reminded states that dying declarations are to be considered “relevant fact” during an investigation.

The reminder was issued at a time Uttar Pradesh police have been accused of contesting the Hathras victim’s last known statement to the investigating officer in which the 19-year-old girl said she was raped by four men. The case was officially handed over to the CBI on Saturday.

Referring to the dying declaration, the Union home ministry’s advisory on Saturday to the states and Union Territories said the law “provides that the statement, written or verbal, by a person who is dead shall be treated as relevant fact in the investigation when the statement is made by a person as to the cause of his death, or as to any of the circumstances of the transaction which resulted in death”.

The advisory cited a Supreme Court order that said the statement should satisfy “all the requirements of judicial scrutiny” but “cannot be discarded merely because it has not been recorded by a magistrate or that the police officer did not obtain attestation by any person present at the time of making of the statement”.

In the Hathras case, the Uttar Pradesh government informed the Supreme Court that the Dalit girl told the investigation officer on September 22 in an Aligarh hospital that she was raped by the four accused and then there was an attempt to strangulate her. A lady head constable was present when the statement was taken and the procedures were videographed.

The girl died on September 29 at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi.

Uttar Pradesh police have contested the rape complaint, citing the lack of sperm in a forensic analysis of samples collected several days after the incident. The police explained the delay by saying the girl first spoke of rape on September 22 after she was attacked on September 14.

But the report from the Forensic Science Laboratory, Agra, confirmed two deep injuries in her vagina.

Saturday’s Union home ministry advisory said that in crimes against women, an FIR must compulsorily be registered in case of a cognisable offence, public servants should be punished if they failed to do so, investigations into rape complaints must be completed within two months and medical exam of the victim conducted within 24 hours of receiving information of the offence.