Left delegation meets Hathras gang rape victim family, demands judicial probe

A joint delegation of the CPI(M) and CPI on Tuesday met the family of the 19-year-old gangrape victim, who was killed, in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras and demanded an independent judicial probe into the matter.

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, his CPI counterpart D Raja, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, CPI National Secretary Amarjeet Kaur, CPI(M) Uttar Pradesh Secretary Hiralal Yadav and CPI UP Secretary Girish Sharma were part of the delegation which met the family.

Yechury said they were told about the "brutal" gang rape and that her cremation was done in the middle of the night without family's consent. "These sort of things are unheard of in the 21st century and are a blatant violation of the Indian Constitution and the guarantees it gives to our people. We expressed our solidarity with her family," he said.

"We demand an independent judicial enquiry and identify the culprit and punish the perpetrators. Let all the new arguments saying that it is a caste conflict or some conspiracy please examine them. There are laws to deal with them. However, none of this can be used as an excuse to delay or deny justice," he said.

The girl was gang-raped by four men on September 14 and died on September 29 in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital.

Her cremation in the wee hours of September 30 by police without the consent of the family.

A controversy has erupted over whether the girl was sexually assaulted with forensic reports claiming that there was no sign of rape while experts said the samples were collected on the 11th day of the incident and it would not indicate sexual assault. In her dying declaration, the experts said, the girl had said that she was raped and it would have precedence over anything else.