New Delhi: In dramatic scenes on the highway between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh today, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were detained for defying a ban on large gatherings as they headed to Hathras to meet the family of the gang rape victim who died on Tuesday and whose dead-of-night cremation by the UP police has provoked nationwide outrage.
Rahul Gandhi alleged that he was pushed to the ground and lathi-charged when he and Priyanka Gandhi were marching on the highway after their convoy was stopped by Uttar Pradesh policemen. “Why are you arresting me? What are the grounds for the arrest? Please tell the media,” Rahul Gandhi said in a heated exchange with policemen, who said that they were charging him with “Section 188” – a law on defying official orders.
In visuals, the Congress leader was seen resisting policemen who were trying to stop him. The Congress MP was shoved by the cops and he was seen falling to the ground in the chaos. “Just now police pushed me, lathicharged me and threw me to the ground. I want to ask, can only Modi Ji walk in this country? Can’t a normal person walk? Our vehicle was stopped, so we started walking,” Rahul Gandhi said, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Gandhis also briefly sat on the road with hundreds of supporters. Ahead of the Congress leaders’ visit, the UP administration this morning enforced a ban on large gatherings and put up barricades at the borders citing the coronavirus. Even as Congress workers protested on the roads and chanted slogans, the Gandhis’ SUV crossed the border, but their convoy was stopped at Greater Noida, at a point that is about 142 km to Hathras.
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi climbed out of their vehicle and started walking with scores of Congress workers, shouting slogans against UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. A short while later, they faced a large group of UP cops who tried to push them back. The Samajwadi Party also protested at the Hathras border, where they were stopped from proceeding to the woman’s village. Since morning, the media has been barred from the village. UP officers claimed the restrictions had been in place since September 1 and has been extended to October 31.
A senior official claimed several policemen had shown Covid symptoms. However, the Congress alleged these were tactics to prevent the Gandhis from entering the village. The woman, 20, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Delhi. She had suffered multiple fractures, paralysis and severe spinal injury when she was assaulted by four upper caste men from her village on September 14.
The police said there was a gash in her tongue because she had bitten it when the men were trying to strangle her. To add to the family’s pain, the UP police took away her body, drove to her village and cremated the body forcibly, with the family locked in their home. The woman’s parents had begged to be allowed to take her body back home and perform the last rite the following morning.
The woman was cremated at 2.30 am with only a few policemen around and no family member. The UP police’s rush to cremate the body was seen to be a desperate attempt to cover-up what has been a string of lapses in the case.
Comments are closed.