Samajwadi Party says delegation stopped from visiting Hathras

The Samajwadi Party on Sunday said its delegation was stopped from visiting Hathras to meet the family of the 19-year-old woman who died after she was assaulted and allegedly gang-raped.

The party said the delegation was stopped at a toll plaza near Agra by police at the behest of the government.

"This forcible stoppage is a murder of democracy.... Samajwadi(s) will stand with the aggrieved family in their fight for justice," the party tweeted in Hindi.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav had on Saturday set up an 11-member fact-finding team headed by the party's state unit chief Naresh Uttam Patel to visit the woman's village on Sunday and meet her family members.

Also read: Hathras gang rape and murder case acquires caste hue

The 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped at a village in Hathras by four men on September 14. After her condition deteriorated, she was referred to the Delhi's Safdarjung hospital where she breathed her last on Tuesday.

She was cremated in the early hours of Wednesday, with her family alleging 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".

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited the family on Saturday.