Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is visiting Hathras in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday to meet the family of the 2020 rape victim. The Dalit woman died following an alleged gangrape in September 2020. In view of Rahul Gandhi's visit, police presence has been beefed up in and around Bool Garhi village in the Chandpa area of Hathras.
President of Uttar Pradesh Congress Ajay Rai confirmed that Rahul Gandhi will be meeting the family in Bool Garhi. Local Congress leader Chandragupta Vikramaditya said that Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi have been consistently in touch with people affected by such tragedies across the country and that Rahul Gandhi has maintained contact with the Hathras victim's family as well.
What Hathras Victim's Father Wrote In Letter To Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi's visit to Hathras comes after the victim's father wrote a letter to the Rae Bareli MP seeking justice. The letter said that they got neither a house nor a job as promised by the government.
"My daughter was gang-raped and her spine was shattered. Her tongue was also cut. The administration, without our consent, poured kerosene on her body and burnt it," the father of the victim wrote. The letter further mentions that despite the victim naming all four accused repeatedly, three of them were let go.
The letter further said that they had been living in a prison-like situation for four years. "The CRPF has us surrounded all day. If we go anywhere, the police pays us a visit. The police are not even letting us work," the victim's father said in the letter.
After this, Rahul Gandhi decided to meet the victim's family. At the time of the incident, too, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi had met the family.
BJP Slams Rahul Gandhi's Hathras Visit
Uttar Pradesh's Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak slammed Gandhi’s visit, suggesting that the opposition leader is misinformed about the case's progress, reported news agency PTI. Pathak remarked that the CBI had already investigated the matter and assured that under BJP governance, no culprit would escape justice. He further claimed that Gandhi’s visits, whether to Sambhal or Hathras, were merely to remain in the public eye rather than to seek justice.
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi had previously met the victim’s family on October 3, 2020, and vowed to fight for justice. The 19-year-old woman was allegedly raped on September 14, 2020, and after being transferred to Aligarh and later to Delhi for treatment, she died on September 29, 2020. Her family alleged that local police forced them to conduct her cremation in the early hours of October 30, a claim that was disputed by police, who maintained that the cremation was done according to the family's wishes.