Hathras gang-rape: Protest held at Jantar Mantar to demand justice for victim

NEW DELHI: Civil society activists, students, women and members of various political outfits gathered at the Jantar Mantar here on Friday to demand justice for the Hathras gangrape and murder victim.

The protest was initially supposed to be held at the India Gate but was later shifted to the Jantar Mantar owing to the prohibitory orders in place in the Rajpath area.

"What is happening in Uttar Pradesh is goondaraj. The police have surrounded the village, are not allowing opposition leaders and media persons to enter it. They have taken away the mobile phones of the family members of the victim," activist and lawyer Prashant Bhushan said.

Delhi: CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI leader D Raja take part in a protest against #Hathras incident, at Jantar Mantar

Sitaram Yechury says, "The UP government has no right to stay in power. Our demand is that justice should be served." pic.twitter.com/sgZTpg0p61

— ANI (@ANI) October 2, 2020

He also condemned the way the victim was cremated "against the wishes of her family".

The body of the 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital, a fortnight after she was gang-raped, was cremated in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, in the early hours of Wednesday, with her family alleging that the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the dead of the night.

Local police officers, however, had said the cremation was carried out "as per the wishes of the family".