Hathras gang-rape: Ghaziabad lawyers demand President's Rule in UP amid outrage over victim's cremation

Ghaziabad: Amid the widespread outrage over the alleged gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras and her forcible cremation subsequently, scores of Ghaziabad lawyers on Thursday demanded imposition of President Rule in Uttar Pradesh. The lawyers demanded the dismissal of the Yogi Adityanath government and imposition of President Rule, saying that the gang-rape of a Dalit woman and her brutalization amid a spate of crime against women in Uttar Pradesh has tarnished the image of the country and would flatten its progress graph. The lawyers sought imposition of President Rule in a memorandum addressed to President Ram Nath Kovind that they gave to District Magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey. The agitating lawyers reached the district collectorate in a march from Civil Court under the banner of Adhivakta Sangharsh Samiti. During the march, the lawyers raised anti-government slogans and burnt effigies of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, accusing him of having failed in controlling the soaring crime graph against women in the state. Addressing reporters after leading the lawyers’ march, the advocates’ body convener Nahar Singh Yadav said the Yogi government has totally failed in controlling the crime in the state, more so against women. And the police, in turn, try to eliminate evidence in haste to hide the soaring crime graph as happened in the case of the gang-rape of the Dalit woman in Hathras who was forcibly cremated overnight by police, said Yadav. The gang-rape of the Dalit woman and her brutalization amid a spate of crime against women in Uttar Pradesh has tarnished the image of the country and would flatten its progress graph, he added. The advocates’ body also Samiti demanded an impartial probe in the case under the supervision of a retired judge of the high court or the Supreme Court. The case should be transferred in the fast track court of any other state, said Yadav, adding the government must provide protection to the rape victim’s family. The lawyers’ body also demanded a government job, a house in Delhi and a compensation of Rs 2 crore for the Hathras gang-rape victim’s family. In addition to the demonstration by lawyers, a Balmiki Samaj outfit held a protest march from Balmiki Park of Navyug Market to the collectorate and raised slogans against the Yogi government and blocked the traffic at many crucial traffic junctions. They condemned the alleged forcible funeral of the rape victim by the Hathras police without her parents’ consent and demanded the termination of the Hathras police officials responsible for this. The Balmiki Samaj also called for the suspension of the sanitisation and cleaning work in Ghaziabad on 3 October, city president of Balmiki outfit, Anil Kalyani said.