A joint delegation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) will visit family members of the 19-year-old girl, who died after a brutal gangrape in Hathras, on October 6.
The delegation will comprise CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary D. Raja, CPI(M) polit bureau member Brinda Karat, CPI national secretary Amarjeet Kaur, Secretary, , CPI(M) U.P. State committee secretary Hiralal Yadav and CPI U.P. State secretary Girish Sharma.
Mr. Raja said he has written to U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath informing him about the slated visit and asking that security be ensured for the delegation.
Political leaders have faced difficulties in meeting the victim’s family. On Monday, ink was thrown at the Aam Aadmi Party delegation headed by Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh when he was speaking to the media after visiting the family. On Sunday police lathicharged RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary and his supporters in the village.
Earlier last week a Congress delegation, led by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, was allowed to visit the family only on their second attempt. A delegation of Trinamool Congress MPs were manhandled by the police and barred from reaching the village.
Earlier, a team comprising leaders of Agricultural Workers Union, the Kisan Sabha, CITU and Janwadi Mahila Samiti had met the family.
The Dalit woman was raped and brutally assaulted, leaving her with a broken spine in Bulagarhi village of Hathras, by four men on September 14. She was initially taken to the district hospital in Hathras from where she was referred to the JNMC in Aligarh Muslim University. After her condition deteriorated, she was referred to Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital where she succumbed to her injuries on September 29.
She was cremated by the police in the early hours of September 30, with her family alleging that they were not allowed to participate in the last rites. Local police officers, however, had said the cremation was carried out “as per the wishes of the family”.
