INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday slammed the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh over the Hathras gang-rape victim's family being allegedly
denied the right to perform her last rites, with party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanding chief minister Yogi Adityanath's resignation
The body of the 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died in a Delhi hospital a fortnight after she was gang-raped, was cremated in Hathras in the
early hours of Wednesday, with her family alleging the local police forced them to conduct the last rites of the dead in the night
Local police officers, however, told that the cremation was carried out "as per the wishes of the family"
The Congress has been holding protests in the national capital and various parts of Uttar Pradesh demanding justice for the gang-rape victim
Party leader Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet, said, "A daughter of India is raped-murdered, facts are suppressed and in the end, the right to
perform the last rites is also taken away from the victim's family." "It is insulting and unjust," he said in the tweet in Hindi using the
hashtag 'Hathras Horror Shocks India'
Along with the tweet, Rahul Gandhi also tagged a video purportedly of the cremation site showing a police officer not answering to queries
as to whether the body of the victim was being cremated there
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi said, "I was on the phone with the Hathras victim's father when he was informed that his daughter
I heard him cry out in despair." "He had just been telling me that all he wanted was justice for his child
Last night the victim's father was robbed of the chance to take his daughter home for the last time and perform her last rites," she said in
Tagging Adityanath, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said, "RESIGN
Instead of protecting the victim and her family, your government became complicit in depriving her of every single human right, even in
You have no moral right to continue as chief minister." In another tweet in Hindi, she alleged that at 2:30 am Wednesday the "victim's kin
kept requesting", but the UP administration "forcibly" cremated the deceased
"The government did not protect her when she was alive
The government did not provide her timely treatment when she was attacked
After her death, the government took away the right of the family to perform the last rites of their daughter and did not respect the
deceased," Priyanka Gandhi said
Hitting out at the chief minister, she alleged, "Gross inhumanity
You did not stop the crime but behaved like criminals
You did not stop the atrocities, but committed atrocity on an innocent child and her family twice." Tagging Adityanath and asking him to
resign, Priyanka Gandhi said, "There is no justice in your rule, only injustice." The Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also
hit out at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and asked why was the victim's family was denied the right to perform her last rites and why
was the body cremated at 2:30 am
He alleged that all limits of atrocities and brutality had been crossed and demanded Yogi Adityanath's resignation
On September 14, the young woman had gone to the fields with her mother and went missing soon after
She was found later, beaten and tortured, her tongue cut as she bit it when the accused attempted to strangle her
She was first admitted to Aligarh Muslim University's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital and then shifted to Safdarjung Hospital
