New Delhi: Two days after he made an unsuccessful attempt to visit Hathras, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Saturday will once again try to visit the family of a Dalit woman who died after being brutally assaulted and allegedly gangraped by four upper caste men.
The village in Uttar Pradesh has turned into a virtual fortress with as many as 300 police personnel, 17 police vehicles, and five barricades deployed in the area. “Gandhi will be accompanied by a delegation of Congress MPs this afternoon to “hear their grievances and demand justice for the victim,” the party said.
When he last tried to visit Hathras, Gandhi got into a scuffle with the police and was arrested along with his sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
On Friday, a delegation of Trinamool Congress MPs was also stopped from entering the district. Visuals of the incident showed police personnel shoving the MPs, including Derek O’Brien, when they tried to continue their journey on foot.
Denied entry to Hathras, Opposition parties on Friday took to the street in the national capital demanding justice for the victim. Several leaders were among the hundreds that gathered at Jantar Mantar, in the first mass gathering in Delhi after the lockdown.
Under fire for its handling of the murder and hurried cremation of the woman, the Uttar Pradesh government suspended three police officers, including Hathras Superintendent of Police Vikrant Vir. A government spokesperson said polygraph and narco tests would be conducted on the accused, the victim’s relatives and police officers involved in the probe.
