Hathras tragedy: Rahul Gandhi tweeted to say "Shameful move of the UP government"
Congress's Rahul Gandhi hit out at the Uttar Pradesh government in a series of tweets on the horrific gangrape and torture of a 20-year-old in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras, who died yesterday after battling for life for two weeks. Amid fresh outrage this morning over the 2 am cremation of her body by the police, as her family was kept locked up, Mr Gandhi tweeted that it was a "shameful move of the UP government to suppress Dalits and show them their 'place' in the society".
The caste angle in the case has been highlighted again and again, first with a protest outside the Delhi hospital where she was admitted by Chandrashekar Azad's Bhim army. The shock and outrage also found voice in social media, with many tweeting that the woman and her family has been "brutalised by the entire system". Others drew parallels with the horrific gangrape and torture of the 23-year-old medical student in Delhi dubbed Nirbhaya.
"All this is a shameful move of the UP government to suppress Dalits and show them their 'place' in the society. Our fight is against this hateful thinking," Rahul Gandhi said in a Hindi tweet.
An earlier tweet from him read: "A daughter of India is raped, facts are suppressed, and in the end the right to funeral is also taken away from her family. It is abusive and unjust."
In a series of tweets, Rahul Gandhi's sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanded that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath resign his post.
In a series of tweets, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said she was on phone with the woman's father when he learnt of her death.
"He had just been telling me that all he wanted was justice for his child," she tweeted, adding that the man was robbed of the chance to take his daughter home for the last time and perform her last rites.
"Instead of protecting the victim and her family, your government became complicit in depriving her of every single human right, even in death. You have no moral right to continue as Chief Minister," she tweeted.
The UP Police had driven from the hospital straight to the cremation ground, refusing all appeals of the family to hand over the girl's body. Heart wrenching visuals showed the family flinging themselves before the ambulance and prostrating themselves on the ground. The body was cremated in the middle of the night, with the police keeping the family and other relatives locked up inside their home.
The woman was attacked on September 14 as she had gone to cut grass in the fields for fodder. Doctors said she had sustained multiple fractures and injuries to her spine, which left her paralysed.
Her attackers had dragged her away, wrapping her dupatta around her throat. In the half strangled state, she had bitten on her tongue, leaving deep gashes, the authorities said.
Amid the outrage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for "strictest action against the accused" and a three-member panel has been set up to investigate the crime, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said. A report is expected within a week.