SIT to probe Hathras gang-rape, Congress demands Yogi Adityanath's resignation

LUCKNOW: Amid outrage over the Hathras gang-rape case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and sought strict action against the accused, the Chief Minister's office said.

Adityanath on Wednesday constituted a three-member SIT to probe the gang-rape case, a day after the death of the 19-year-old woman in a Delhi hospital and also asked for conducting the trial in a fast track court.

In a tweet, the chief minister's office said that the prime minister spoke with Adityanath over the case.

"Respected Prime Minister @narendramodi Ji has spoken on the Hathras incident and said that strict action should be taken against the culprits," the CMO said.

The woman was brutally gang-raped in a village in Hathras district two weeks ago.

She died of her grievous injuries at a Delhi's Safdurjung hospital on Tuesday, prompting outrage, protests and calls for justice.

A senior official said a SIT has been constituted to the probe the case.

Secretary home, Bhagwan Swarup, will lead the SIT and DIG, Chandraprakash, and commandant PAC Agra, Poonam, will be its members.

The SIT has been asked to submit its report in seven days time, the official said.

Meanwhile, 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 in the dead of the night.

Local police officers, however, told PTI 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 had passed away. 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 a series of tweets.

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 death. 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.

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"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 in Delhi on Monday.