Hathras gang-rape: Opposition parties demand resignation of U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath

They also seek action against police for cremating the victim’s body without the consent of her family

All India Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev addresses a press conference on Hathras case as Congress leader Udit Raj looks on, at the AICC headquarters, in New Delhi on September 30, 2020.

Opposition parties and activists on Wednesday demanded action against the Uttar Pradesh police as well as the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the police allegedly cremating the victim of the Hathras gang-rape case without the consent of her family.

The 19-year-old Dalit woman from Hathras had been admitted to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences here after a brutal assault by four upper caste men but passed away on Tuesday. Her family alleged that the police had cremated her body in the early hours of Wednesday though they asked to be allowed to perform the last rites during the day.

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said via tweets the BSP condemned the actions of the police and called for the Supreme Court to take cognizance of the incident. She said the attitude of the U.P. government and the police did not indicate that the victim and her family would get justice.

Samajwadi Party leader and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said in a tweet the police had conducted the victim’s last rites without her family’s consent at night under pressure from the government. He said the actions of the police were an attempt to erase evidence and that the BJP government had committed a “sin and crime” by doing so.

The CPI(M) Polit Bureau condemned the U.P. government’s actions, terming it a “blatant denial of justice” and demanding action against the police personnel involved.

“Her death is the result of the callous approach of the government. The victim was grievously injured in the barbaric rape crime committed by four upper caste men on September 14, her tongue was cut out, she was bleeding profusely but the police refused to file an FIR for five days, denied the victim the immediate medical treatment which could have saved her and in the ultimate act of caste cruelty, the police cremated her body, denying the family the right to give their daughter a dignified funeral,” it said in a statement.

CPI general secretary D. Raja demanded that the Chief Minister resign and also called for nationwide protests on Thursday.

“The tendency of the Adityanath government of subscribing to and practising the unconstitutional caste norms is clearly in tune with the RSS agenda of establishing a Hindu Rashtra. A culture of violence is carefully being cultivated and social hierarchies are being bolstered. Violence is the cornerstone of this divisive vision of the Hindu rightwing,” he said.

The All-India Progressive Women’s Association national executive said: “The refusal of the U.P. government and its machinery to allow a Dalit family the right to grieve their daughter and bid her farewell in keeping with their own emotions and customs, reeks of caste supremacy.”

It said justice for the victim would be served if the rapists are punished and the cremation of the body without her parents’ presence is treated as a “caste atrocity”, for which the police and the administration officials are arrested and prosecuted under the Prevention of Atrocities Act.