Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad on Sunday marched to meet the family of the Dalit woman who died of her injuries earlier this week after she was gangraped in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district by four upper caste Thakur men. Azad, whose car was stopped about 20 km before Hathras by the police, demanded Y security cover for the family and an inquiry monitored by a retired Supreme Court judge.
This came a day after former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met the members of the woman’s family. Vadra continued her attack on the Uttar Pradesh administration and raised some of the family’s concerns.
A meeting was held by BJP leader and former Hathras MLA Rajvir Singh Pahalwan to support the four arrested men. He alleged that they have been falsely accused and demanded justice.
Chief Minister Adityanath, meanwhile, recommended the Central Bureau of Investigation take over the case, after protests around the country over the way in which the case has been managed so far. The administration has denied it was caste-based crime – four upper caste Thakur men allegedly raped her – and has even denied the woman was raped, based on swab samples taken several days after the crime. The state police had also forcibly cremated her body while her family was locked in their home.
Here are the top updates of the day:
8.18 pm: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticises BJP MLA Surendra Singh for saying that the parents of young women must inculcate good values in them to stop incidents of rape. “This is the filthy RSS male chauvinist mentality at work,” he tweets. “Men do the raping but women need to be taught good values.”
8.08 pm: Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh will visit Hathras district tomorrow, reports India Today.
7.57 pm: The Editors Guild of India criticises the Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh for preventing media from reporting on the Hathras case developments. “Equally reprehensible is the way the government has tapped the telephones of journalists engaged in covering the Hathras incidents,” the guild says in a statement. “Worse, the tapped conversation of the journalists has been selectively leaked, leading to a social media calumny against them.”
The guild demands corrective action, saying not allowing reporters to visit the incident spots and tapping the phone conversation of journalists’ obstructs the functioning of the media.
7.25 pm: The Noida Police has taken suo motu cognisance and ordered an inquiry to be conducted by a senior lady officer after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was caught in a scuffle between party workers and Uttar Pradesh police on her way to Hathras district on Saturday, reports Live Law.
6.55 pm: A Samajwadi Party delegation has assured all possible help to the woman’s family, reports PTI.
Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Lok Dal says that its Vice President Jayant Chaudhary and party workers were baton-charged by the police when they were on their way to meet the family members.
5.50 pm: Congress leader from Bulandshahr Nizam Malik has been arrested for announcing a reward of Rs 1 crore for anyone who brings the head of the accused in the Hathras case, reports News18.
5.45 pm: Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad meets the family of the woman, reports NDTV. “I demand Y security for the family or I will take them to my house, they are not safe here,” Azad says. “We want an inquiry to be done under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge.”
4.57 pm: Hathras Sadar Sub-divisional Magistrate says a delegation of five people are allowed inside the village of the woman’s family, reports ANI. “Delegations of Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) came in, we got five names listed and allowed them to go there,” he adds. “Eventually their workers started misbehaving with women personnel.”
He adds that barricades were broken and stones were pelted. One of the police officers also received injuries, according to the Hathras Sadar SM. The situation is under control.
4.54 pm: Assistant Commissioner of Police (Home) Awanish K Awasthi visits the woman’s family, reports ANI. He says they will look into the points raised by them. “Their main issue is that no perpetrator should go free & there should be strict proceedings against them,” he adds.
3.17 pm: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi accuses the Adityanath-led administration in Uttar Pradesh of trying to hide the rape incident in Hathras district, reports ANI. “The funeral by police and attack on journalists is strongly condemnable,” she adds. “Moreover, the political leaders who are going there are also being attacked.”
The DMK will take out a candle light march towards the Raj Bhavan on Monday to demand justice for the woman, according to PTI.
3.15 pm: Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary meets the woman’s family members.
2.45 pm: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, at a rally in Punjab to protest against the controversial farm laws, raises the Hathras gangrape incident, reports ANI. “I was in Uttar Pradesh where a daughter was killed,” he says. “No action taken against those who killed her. Family whose daughter was killed is locked up in their house. The district magistrate and chief minister threatened them. Such is the situation in India. Nothing happens to criminal but action taken against victim.”
2.20 pm: Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad is walking to Hathras to meet the woman’s family after being stopped near Aligarh, reports NDTV. Protesters, carrying flags, shout slogans against the state government. His car was stopped about 20 km before Hathras.
2.18 pm: BJP leader and former Hathras MLA Rajvir Singh Pahalwan has called a meeting to support the accused in the Hathras gangrape case, reports Hindustan Times. Pahalwan alleges that the accused who have been arrested in the case are not guilty. He also welcomes state government’s decision to recommend a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the matter.
1.59 pm: A demonstration is being held by members of an upper caste in support of the accused, News18 reports. They call for an unbiased inquiry into the case.
1.51 pm: A Congress worker protesting against the Hathras gangrape stops Union minister Smriti Irani’s car on her way to Varanasi, PTI reports.
1.48 pm: A medical team visits the Hathras complainant’s home as her father’s health deteriorates, ANI reports.
12.50 pm: Priyanka Gandhi again presses for the dismissal of the district magistrate who allegedly threatened the complainant’s family. She also asks why the special investigation team is continuing its work after a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry has been ordered into the case.
11.41 am: Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary will also visit the family on Sunday, according to News18.
11.36 am: Members of the upper castes in Hathras will hold a meeting in support of the accused on Sunday, NDTV reports. The meeting will be held at BJP leader Rajveer Singh Pehelwan’s home.
11.34 am: A group of Samajwadi Party leaders leaves for Hathras to meet the woman’s family, News18 reports.
11.25 am: The Left and Congress will stage protests in West Bengal against the Hathras gangrape on Tuesday, PTI reports.
11.15 am: Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati asks why the government has taken no action Hathras District Magistrate Praveen Kumar Laxkar, who was seen threatening the woman’s family on camera. “The victim family has made many serious allegations against him, yet the silence of the UP government is sad and worrying,” she tweets. “The government has agreed to a CBI inquiry but how will it be impartial if the DM is there.”
11.09 am: The woman’s family has refused to immerse her ashes, The Times of India reports. The woman was cremated hurriedly by the police on Wednesday, causing shock and anger across the country.
“We are not sure whose ashes these are,” the woman’s brother says.
11.04 am: The woman’s mother says that the accused had been harassing her for months, Hindustan Times reports. The mother adds that the men would follow her and block her path when she would go out for work.
The woman’s mother adds that she was scared to go out alone. “If she needed to buy even a soap, she would take her sister-in-law along with her,” she says.
10.34 am: Rahul Gandhi, who met the woman’s family at their home on Saturday, says he assured them that the state government could not act in an arbitrary manner because the whole country has stood up to ensure justice for the complainant.
“I met the family of the Hathras victim and understood their pain,” he tweets. “I assured them that we stand with them in this difficult time and will help them get justice.”
10.30 am: Members of an Uttar Pradesh Special Investigation Team visit the woman’s home to record statements of her family members, reports ANI.
9.06 am: Amit Malviya, who heads the BJP’s information technology unit, could be in trouble for tweeting a video of the Hathras gangrape complainant. The chief of the National Commission for Women tells The Sunday Express that if he did share a video revealing her identity, and “if she is a rape victim”, it is illegal. Under Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code, it is illegal to reveal the identity of a victim of sexual assault.
Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Women chief Vimla Batham also tells The Sunday Express that if the video Malviya shared revealed the woman’s identity, it was “definitely objectionable”. Batham adds that the commission will take cognisance and serve Malviya a notice if this is true.
8.45 am: A medico-legal report from the hospital where the complainant was admitted refutes the state police’s claim that she was not raped.
Read more: Hathras rape case: UP hospital contradicts police’s ‘no rape’ claim, says report
8.43 am: The woman’s brother tells ANI that the family had not asked for a CBI investigation as an inquiry by a special investigation team is already underway.
8.40 am: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi lists the concerns and demands of the woman’s family. This includes a Supreme Court-monitored judicial inquiry and that the Hathras district magistrate be suspended and not be given a post after. The family also asks why their daughter’s body was burnt without their permission, why they are being misled and threatened, and how they can trust that it was their daughter’s body which was cremated.
Here are updates on the case from Saturday:
- Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Saturday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the Hathras rape and murder case, the Chief Minister’s Office tweeted. The case was so far being handled by a special investigation team of the Uttar Pradesh Police. However, it is unclear if a state’s chief minister can order a CBI inquiry.
- The sister of the woman claimed on Saturday that police had cremated someone else’s body earlier this week. The mother of the 20-year-old woman said the police did not hand over her daughter’s body after her death. “These people didn’t let me see the body of my girl even after I kept begging for it,” the mother said.
- West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that the Centre is running a “dictatorship” in the country, and that the Bharatiya Janata Party is a “pandemic” that is torturing Dalits the most. Banerjee claimed that instead of running a government “for the people”, the BJP ran a government “against the people, the Dalits and the farmers”.
- Television channel India Today on Friday issued a statement asking the government to explain how a conversation by one of its journalists, who was covering the case, was leaked online. The media group questioned why the woman’s family was under kept surveillance, and the legal basis for recording and leaking the telephonic conversations. Scroll.in was not able to independently verify the audio clip.
- The Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday turned the district of Hathras into a virtual fortress as hundreds of policemen guarded the district’s borders and put up barricades about two kilometres from the village to prevent anyone from entering the area. The village of the deceased woman was flooded with over 300 policemen who came in 17 police vehicles. The woman’s family alleged their phones have been confiscated and they have been virtually placed under house arrest.
- Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi along with three other party MPs were on Saturday allowed to go to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday to meet the family of the 20-year-old woman who died after she was brutally assaulted and allegedly gangraped. On Thursday, they had been stopped from travelling to Hathras, and escorted back to Delhi.