Hathras case: The Left leaders demanded a judicial probe into the crime.
A group of top leaders of the Left today met the family of the Dalit woman allegedly gangraped last month in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras. The woman died on September 29, succumbing to the injuries she had sustained during the assault.
Those who met the bereaved family today include Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat of the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM) and D Raja, Amarjeet Kaur, and Dr Girish Sharma of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
"We have come to express empathy with family, want judicial enquiry, not any enquiry (by) state-led organisation," Mr Yechury said after meeting the family, according to ANI editor Smita Prakash who posted visuals of the leaders' visit on Twitter.
"These sort of things are unheard of in the 21st century and are a blatant violation of the Indian Constitution and the guarantees it gives to our people," Mr Yechury said according to a PTI report.
D Raja, according Ms Prakash's tweet, also accused UP Chief minister Yogi Adityanath of making "Machiavellian statements" in connection with the case, ANI reported. "Dalit families are not treated like humans, they should get dignity and constitutional rights," she quoted him as saying.
Ms Karat, too, criticised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's government for its alleged insensitivity. "The family should be protected. What is shocking is that the UP CM is yet to say one word stating that a crime has been committed, or what happened to her was wrong. There is nothing more shameful that that," she said.
The UP government on Saturday called for a CBI probe into the case of gangrape and the subsequent death after it fuelled anger across the country over the perceived bungling of the case by the state police and administration.
What added to the fury were allegations that the police had cremated the woman's body during the night without the family's consent. Following this, the police also allegedly cordoned off the victim's family from media personnel and visiting politicians.
The UP government on Monday filed a number of cases across the state, targeting alleged vested interests trying to "incite caste and communal tension" in the state. The charges mentioned in the 19 cases filed include sedition and criminal conspiracy, too, according to media reports.