Hathras: Scores of people October 4 held a meeting outside the house of a former legislator of Uttar Pradesh and defended the accused in the alleged gangrape of a Dalit woman.
Four upper caste men on September 14 allegedly gangraped the 19-year-old woman in a village under Hathras district of the northern Indian state. She died of serious wounds in New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital 15 days later.
The meeting outside the residence of Rajvir Singh Pehalvan, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, demanded registration of a First Information Report against the victim’s family members.
Heavy police force was deployed around Pehalwan’s house, located around 9 km from the victim’s village.
Pehalvan’s son Manveer Singh, one of the organizers, denied the gathering comprised members from the upper castes. He claimed the participants represented different sections of society.
“We welcome the CBI inquiry ordered by the Uttar Pradesh chief minister. We have faith in the investigation,” Singh told PTI while claiming that the victim’s family members were “changing their stand.”
Singh also said the entire scenario was created to blame the government. “The accused persons are in favor of any type of inquiry. But the victims are changing their stand every now and then. They do not want a narco test or a CBI probe. Now they want other kinds of inquiries,” he claimed.
The legislator’s son said police should register a case against the complainants. “Our demand is that a case should be filed against those people who had filed the case in the first instance,” he said.
Singh also said they were exploring various legal options to defend the accused in the case. He asserted that the arrest of some of the accused from their homes was proof of their innocence.
“Had they been guilty, they would have run away from their homes. Why would they be present in their homes,” he said.
He also alleged that the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were trying to influence the victim’s family as they wanted to the issue to “linger on”.
The meeting assumes significance as it was held a day after Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited the victim’s house and met her family members at a village in Hathras district, and the recommendation of a CBI probe by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
The victim was cremated in the dead of the night near her home on September 30. Her family alleged that they were forced by the local police to hurriedly conduct her last rites. Local police officers, however, had said the cremation was carried out “as per the wishes of the family.”
Source: The Hindustan Times
Not surprising in caste-ridden male chauvinistic rural India. But do we remember how rape accused Frightening Franco was feted with garlands when he returned to Jalandhar after being released on bail?
Of course, BJP leaders have to protect the culprits by all means. “Birds of the same feather, flock together”.
The doctor has certified that no rape occurred. The body was cremated after taking permission from the victim’s family. How magnanimous the U P police are ! They did not want the family to undergo any problem in cremation and so did it for them.
How sad ordinary citizens are ? Even yesterday another rape occurred. U. P. may like to prove that rape is not anything strange or extraordinary