Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has launched a stunning attack against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding his resignation after the family of the 19-year-old gang-rape victim accused the state police of forcibly cremating her body.
Priyanka wrote on Twitter, “I was on the phone with the Hathras victim’s father when he was informed that his daughter had passed away. I heard him cry out in despair.”
She continued, “He had just been telling me that all he wanted was justice for his child. Last night he was robbed of the chance to take his daughter home for the last time and perform her last rites.”
Her concluding tweet read, “Yogi Adityanath RESIGN, Instead of protecting the victim and her family, your government became complicit in depriving her of every single human right, even in death. You have no moral right to continue as Chief Minister.”
@myogiadityanath RESIGN
Instead of protecting the victim and her family, your government became complicit in depriving her of every single human right, even in death. You have no moral right to continue as Chief Minister. 3/3
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) September 30, 2020
The Dalit gang-rape victim had died at a Delhi hospital days after she was gang-raped and brutalised. The victim’s brother was quoted by news agency PTI as saying, “The police have forcibly taken the dead body, and my father along with them for cremation. When my father reached Hathras, he was immediately taken (to the crematorium) by the police.”
The 19-year-old Dalit woman was brutally raped by four men on 14 September. The girl’s perpetrators slashed her tongue and broke three of her bones.
According to media reports, the girl was attacked by a group of monsters when she was working in a field with her mother. She was first admitted to a local hospital in Aligarh but had to be rushed to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital when her condition deteriorated.
The Hathras Police, whose questionable role came under scrutiny, on Tuesday issued a statement denying the reports that the victim’s tongue was slashed by her perpetrators.