Visit of fact-finding team of Left, LJD MPs to Hathras cancelled by UP Police, claim CPM sources

NEW DELHI: The visit of a fact-finding team of Left and LJD MPs on Sunday to Hathras, following the alleged gang-rape and death of a Dalit woman, was cancelled after the Uttar Pradesh Police informed it that her family is being shifted to Lucknow for a court appearance, sources in the CPI(M) said.

The family members of the 19-year-old Dalit woman who died at a Delhi hospital after allegedly being raped by four men in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district will appear before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday.

Barely half an hour before the team was to depart from New Delhi, the Uttar Pradesh Police informed that its visit had been cancelled as the woman's family is being shifted to Lucknow for a court appearance on Monday, the sources said.

The team, which comprises Elamaram Kareem and Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya of the CPI(M), Binoy Vishwam of the CPI and M V Shreyams Kumar of the LJD, was to visit the Hathras rape victim's house and meet her family members, neighbours and others, they said.

The team of MPs also wanted to hold a meeting with the district magistrate and the district police chief to enquire about the safety of the woman's parents and relatives as there were incidents of "constant attacks" on the them, the sources said.

The fact-finding team had decided to submit its report to the president, the chief justice of India and the prime minister after the visit.

Shocked by the incident and her forcible cremation subsequently, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on October 1 had summoned top government officials to court.

A division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Jaspreet Singh had ordered the Uttar Pradesh additional chief secretary, state police chief and an additional director general of police to appear before it on October 12 to explain the incident.

Taking suo motu cognisance of the case, which has triggered widespread outrage, the bench also ordered the Hathras district magistrate and superintendent of police to appear to apprise the court of various aspects of the case, including the ongoing probe into it.