New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and three other senior Congress leaders visited the family of the 20-year old alleged gang rape and assault victim in Hathras’ Boolgarhi village Saturday and promised to seek justice for them.
In a 45-minute discussion with the victim’s mother, father, sister and three siblings, Rahul declared that Congress will not stop until the Dalit family gets justice.
“Nobody can subjugate them, not even the BJP government that is in power here. There is no force on to stop them from getting justice,” Rahul said.
“We will fight against injustice, and fight till justice is done,” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told reporters after the meeting.
“Gandhis said that they stand in ‘solidarity with our family and will continue to support us. We told them about whatever all has happened in the past couple of days — the torture and harassment that we have been subjected to, including not being allowed to cremate our sister,” the victim’s younger brother.
“Priyanka Gandhi has said that justice will soon be delivered to us and the accused will get the punishment they deserve. They have told us that they will support us financially too,” he added.
Congress leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K.C. Venugopal and P.L. Punia also accompanied the Gandhis.
Minutes after the Gandhi family reached the village, the Yogi Adityanath government announced a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the case.
मुख्यमंत्री श्री @myogiadityanath जी ने सम्पूर्ण हाथरस प्रकरण की जांच सीबीआई से कराए जाने के आदेश दिए हैं।
— CM Office, GoUP (@CMOfficeUP) October 3, 2020
Fight to visit
The Congress leaders were allowed to visit the family Saturday only after a major scuffle between the party members and the Uttar Pradesh Police at the Delhi-Noida flyway.
High drama ensued as 35 Congress MPs and scores of party workers, besides the Gandhi brother-sister duo, jammed the flyway’s exit for hours, insisting that the UP government allow them into the state so that they could drive to the Dalit girl’s village.
The UP Police had Thursday arrested former Congress president and Priyanka Gandhi on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida when they had tried to drive to Hathras.
Also read: How BJP high command stepped in to ask Yogi govt to amend its clumsy strategy in Hathras case
‘Won’t submerge ashes until justice is delivered’
The victim’s last remains were collected by her brothers Saturday noon after she was cremated by the UP government officials — administration and police — in the middle of the night, at 2:25 am on 29 September, without the consent of the family. She had died at the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi earlier that day.
“We collected her ashes but won’t submerge them till justice is delivered to us. We don’t want anything apart from a death sentence for the accused,” the elder brother told ThePrint.
The ashes were collected three days after she was cremated.
Asked why the family didn’t collect the ashes until now, the sister-in-law said they were intimidated by large numbers of police personnel surrounding their house, and were also extremely upset that they couldn’t cremate the girl according to Hindu rituals.
Earlier in the day, the media was also allowed to enter the village after two days of being banned. In this period, the government claimed the three-member SIT completed its probe.
‘Test is more of harassment’
On Friday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered the suspension of Hathras SP Vikrant Vir and three other police officers for mishandling the alleged gang-rape case. He also ordered a narco-polygraph test to be conducted on everyone involved in the case.
However, the victim’s family said it doesn’t have a problem undergoing the test, but added that it felt like further “harassment” for them.
“We don’t have a problem with the test. Our point is very simple — when no other gang rape and murder victim’s family have been subjected to all of this, then why us? Is it because we are Dalits?” the victim’s elder brother asked.
Also read: Hathras woman’s family says they know what would have saved her — ‘being a Pandit or Thakur’
Duffer is trying to make use of an opportunity.
First he “falls down” and makes a hash of it.
Next he wags his finger in the victimised family’s face.
When will this fellow ever learn?
When a DALIT girl is raped by a HINDU madmen from a different caste. You can see proselytizers take charge and anti HINDU rhetoric takes place as a means to attack HINDUS.
Whereas when a rape of a DALIT woman is done by
“SECULAR VOTES “. THE same proselytizers and anti HINDU forces ignore it.
My request to YOGIJI is no matter what the caste or religion a rapist is from . He should be treated as a mad man and punished as a enemy of the country.
Pappu the Political Vulture – new avatar for the clown.