The gangrape, murder and hurried cremation of a 19-year-old Dalit girl has sparked a political slugfest in India, with many political leaders making a beeline to the victim’s village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras but to no avail. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was stopped by the police at Yamuna expressway while he was enroute to Hathras on Thursday, will yet again make an attempt today. Meanwhile, local authorities are rigid on their stand that the Dalit victim’s village was off-limits for the media.Political slugfest continuesA Trinamool Congress delegation led by Derek O’Brien was stopped on Friday from meeting the victim’s family and its members alleged they were pushed around by officials. Samajwadi Party workers took out a protest in Lucknow, and were lathi-charged by police. There were protests also in Aligarh, Mathura and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. Students, civil rights activists and political workers gathered at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in the evening. Several political leaders, including from the Aam Aadmi Party and the Left, joined the protest. On Thursday, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police in Greater Noida while they were on their way to Hathras.The caseAccording to the family, the woman was gangraped in a brutal assault on September 14 that left her with severe injuries. She died at Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital on Tuesday. What followed next only fueled the matter and raised doubts over the role of the police. The girl was cremated in the middle of the night with family members claiming that police ignored their pleas to bring the body home one last time.The actionAmid a nationwide outrage, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday suspended the Hathras SP and four other police officers over their handling of the gangrape-murder case.
