Hathras gangrape: UP Police blocks entry to victim's village; family claims intimidation, harassment

The Uttar Pradesh Police, on Friday, continued its strict control over access to the Hathras gangrape and murder victim’s family, manhandling Opposition leaders and blocking media personnel trying to approach the 19-year-old Dalit girl’s village. A delegation of Trinamool Congress MPs was stopped by police around 1.5 kilometres from the victim’s home, while the politicians were allegedly manhandled and pushed. MP Kakoli Ghosh, part of the delegation, alleged that women police personnel tried to rip apart her clothing, while shoving her around. Dramatic visuals of Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien being pushed to the ground also appeared on social media. Condemning the incident, TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee claimed that the Yogi Adityanath government has let loose a reign of terror and “crossed all limits of decency”. “Is it a democracy? MPs are being heckled and pushed to ground. How come police officers have this audacity to heckle members of the Parliament? The state government, which has failed to protect to a Dalit girl and is busy hushing up the matter, is now using brute force against Opposition,” he said. Meanwhile, the small UP village currently mirrors a fortress as policemen are deployed at every nook and corner, and Section 144 has been imposed on the region. Media reports suggested that even though Section 144 only bars assembly of three or more people, there were restrictions on individual movements as well, and no person was allowed to enter the periphery of the victim’s village.

I am standing a kilometre from the #Hathras village where the gangrape and murder of a Dalit woman has shaken India. No journalists are being allowed past this barricade. Why is @UPGovt blocking our right to report this? We will try our best. My reports coming to @themojo_in pic.twitter.com/mdE1xRJkAl

— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) October 2, 2020

The local administration, however, claimed that the restrictions were put in place as the Special Investigation Team, probing the matter, is still in the village trying to collect statements and evidence. The sub-divisional magistrate of the region told ANI that the Opposition and media were not allowed in the village so that there is no “meddling in the investigation”.

SIT टीम अंदर है, जांच चल रही है। जांच किसी तरह से प्रभावित न हो इसलिए दिशानिर्देश हैं और किसी को भी अंदर जाने की अनुमति नहीं है: तृणमूल कांग्रेस के प्रतिनिधिमंडल को हाथरस बोर्डर पर रोकने पर प्रेम प्रकाश मीणा, SDM हाथरस pic.twitter.com/yvq2bgUlXX

— ANI_HindiNews (@AHindinews) October 2, 2020

More from India

Supreme Court clears Vantara elephant project, rejects PIL: Top 5 things to know Focus back to India-US trade deal: Trump’s negotiators landing in New Delhi tonight

The 19-year-old victim was gang-raped, tortured, and beaten on 14 September, according to the family. She succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday. The case has elicited sharp rebuke for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, especially after the family alleged that the police forcefully cremated the victim’s body without allowing the family’s participation. Family alleges harassment, says police preventing them from speaking to media Meanwhile, the family of the murder-gangrape victim has claimed that they are being harassed by the district administration and are being forced not to talk to the media or Opposition leaders. According to local media reports, a boy who claimed to be the victim’s cousin, said that the police has fortified the family’s home while cops are stationed not only on the streets near their home, but also at their roof terrace and at every outlet of their house. Reports also quoted the boy as saying that the family-members’ mobile phones have been forcefully taken away and all of them have been confined within a single room of their house. The boy, whose age was not reported but who appeared to be a minor in a video shared online (Firstpost has not independently verified the authenticity of the video), also accused the city’s district magistrate of kicking one of the family members on the chest. The disrict magistrate, according to reports, has warned the family not to speak to the media. The child said that he had escaped somehow through the fields and was sent by the family to ask reporters to reach out to the family. Similar reports had come out on Thursday as well after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi posted a purported video of the victim’s father making similar claims. The man, around 50 claimed that he was “pressured” into going to a police station, where family members were made to sign some documents. “But we are not satisfied with this. My daughter’s case should be probed by the CBI and monitored by a Supreme Court judge. We are under pressure from officials and confined to our home while the media has also been disallowed from meeting us,” the man is heard saying in the video.

हाथरस की बेटी के पिता का बयान सुनिए।

उन्हें जबरदस्ती ले जाया गया। सीएम से वीसी के नाम पर बस दबाव डाला गया। वो जांच की कार्रवाई से संतुष्ट नहीं हैं।

अभी पूरे परिवार को नजरबंद रखा है। बात करने पर मना है।

क्या धमकाकर उन्हें चुप कराना चाहती है सरकार?

अन्याय पर अन्याय हो रहा है। pic.twitter.com/6lIW1hdvDc

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) October 1, 2020

The family’s claims that the police was restricting their movement were supported by another news report, which claimed that the family was not even allowed to complete funeral rituals of the victim. The report, published by  ABP News claimed that the family has not even been allowed to collect the ashes and bones of the victim from the pyre, for further rituals. The family had claimed that they had begged the police not to cremate the body in the dead of the night as Hindu rituals do not allow for cremation after sunset. But the police had locked them up and burnt the body without any participation from the family. ‘Media will leave in few days, we will not’: Hathras DM tells victim’s kin Another video surfaced purportedly showing Hathras District Magistrate Praveen Kumar Laxkar meeting the family at their home, where he allegedly asked the woman’s father to “reconsider” if he wants to stick with the statement or change it. “Aap apni vishwasniyata khatam mat kariye. Media wale main aapko bata doon… aaj abhi aadhe chale gaye, kal subah tak aadhe aur nikal jaenge aur 2-4 din bachenge … Hum hi bas khade hain aapke saath mein, thik hai. Ab aapki ichha hai, aapko baar-baar bayaan badalna hai, nahi badalna hai…" (You should not destroy your credibility. About the media, I must tell you, half of them have left today… the other half would leave by tomorrow morning… two or four more days maybe. Only we are standing by your side, alright. Now, it is up to you whether you want to change your statement repeatedly or not…),” DM Laxkar tells the victim’s father according to the video on social media. A woman member of the family claimed they were being pressured by the district magistrate and feared “these people now won’t let us live here”, according to another purported video. “Un logon ne mummy ke ulte seedhe video bana rakhe hain, us time haalat aise the ke jiske jo mu mein aa raha tha wo hum log bole ja rahe the… ab ye log humein yahan rehne nahi denge. Ye DM zyada hi chaalbaazi kar rahe hain, pressure daal rahe zabardasti… keh rah eke tum logon ki baton ka bharosa nahi hai, zabardasti bayaan badal rahe. Papa ko bulwa rahe keh rahe bayaan badalne se tumhari wo rahegi, hum log doosri jagah chale jaenge.” (They have made random videos of mother’s statements. Soon after the incident, the situation was such that we were speaking anything that came to our minds… But now they (administration) won’t let us live here anymore. This DM is a trickster, he is pressuring us. Says we are not reliable, we are changing our statement. They asked our father and told him that we lose credibility if we change the statement, we (administrators) will be sent to some other place,) the sobbing woman alleged. UP Police claims Hathras victim wasn’t raped, BJP leader accuses family of murder A caste angle became more prominent on Friday in the crime, which many link to the deeply-entrenched social divide within the society. Local newspaper, Amar Ujala quoted a local BJP leader Rajveer Singh Pahalwan, who claimed that the victim was killed by her own mother and brother. Pahalwan, who is also a Thakur leader and former MLA of the region, also claimed that the family is now changing its statement to incriminate four ‘innocent’ upper-caste men. Pahalwan also named the sitting BJP MP Rajveer Singh Diler in his statement, who he said will be taught a lesson by the people in the next elections. Pahalwan is from the same caste as the accused, while Diler is from the same lower caste subgroup as the victim. According to the report, earlier, the parents of one of the key accused had said that their son was named in the FIR on the insistence of Diler and his daughter Manju. The family of accused also claimed that the initial FIR named only one person while the other names were added later on Manju’s insistence. Meanwhile, the UP Police made a bizarre claim stating that the Hathras victim was never raped and the allegations were made by ‘miscreants’ looking to spread caste tensions. “The report of the FSL has come. It says clearly that samples did not contain sperm. It makes clear that there was no rape or gang rape,” Additional Director Genera (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said, according to PTI. Legal experts, however, debunked the theory propounded by the Uttar Pradesh Police that absence of semen from the body of Hathras victim suggested that she was not raped, saying presence of sperm cannot be an essential ingredient to prove the crime. The ADG also claimed that the woman in her statement to police “did not mention rape but talked about ‘marpeet’ (beating) only”. But another officer had earlier said that the section relating to rape was added to the FIR after the woman told police that she had been sexually assaulted. Reports, however, say that the post mortem report also claims that the victim suffered injuries in her genitals, which indicated the sexual nature of the crime. The girl, in one of her final statements before death, had also told the police on Tuesday that the four men had raped her on 14 September when she had gone to collect fodder for animals. The Supreme Court has, in various successive judgments, also held that the victim’s testimony will be treated with ‘highest importance’ and will be deemed enough for conviction if supporting evidence is present. With inputs from PTI