The Hathras gang-rape case and the issue around the brutal assault and murder of a teenage girl in the state of Uttar Pradesh has gained the centre stage of media attention and people throughout the country are feeling enraged and furious at what has happened. Initially the media personnel were not allowed the permission to either go to Hathras or to meet the family members of the victim but now permission has been granted to the media in this regard. Major political leaders have also spoken about the Hathras incident and leaders of the Congress such as Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi met with the woman’s family. The Congress has also been quite articulate with her attack on the Uttar Pradesh government and has raised concerns for the safety and wellbeing of the woman’s family.
A day after Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi met the family of the victim, Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad marched to meet the family of the victim after his convoy was stopped almost twenty kilometres away from the district. The woman in question was a nineteen year old belonging to the Dalit community, who succumbed to her injustices earlier this week after she was gang-raped and tortured in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh by four men belonging to the Upper Caste. After having met the family of the victim, Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad demanded that the family of the victim be given Y Security and an inquiry monitored by the Supreme Court be conducted in this matter.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath has asked the CBI to take over the case. Massive protests have been going on against the brutal rape and murder of the young Dalit woman and the way that the case has been managed so far has also been widely critiqued. Swab tests taken days after the woman was raped, a denial of the very fact that the woman was raped or that Upper Caste men were involved in the heinous crime in the first place, show that not enough has been done so far to ensure that the young victim’s family gets justice. The police of the state of Uttar Pradesh has also been criticised for conducting a hurried funeral of the girl in the dead of the night while keeping the family locked up inside their home.
