The Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal workers on Sunday clashed with the police during the visits of their senior leaders to Hathras to meet the gang-rape victim’s family members.
The SP and RLD workers were lath-charged by the police for defying the prohibitory orders imposed in the village. Considering social distancing and other pandemic related norms, the authorities have permitted only five people from outside to visit the gang-rape victim’s kin at a time.
The police lathi-charged several workers of the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Bhim Army on Sunday as they clashed with the cops during a visit to Bhulagarhi village of Hathras, the native place of the 19-year-old Dalit girl who died after alleged gang-rape.
The clashes broke out briefly when the police denied entry into the village to the visiting delegations of these political parties, saying that more than five people could not be allowed to go to the village.
The SP and RLD supporters clashed with the police and tried to break the barriers put up by the cops. They were joined by the Bhim Army later in the day.
The clashes began when the workers of the political parties started pelting stones at the police. In return, the police baton-charged them. Many people, including RLD leader Jayant Chaudhury, son of former Union minister Ajit Singh, were injured in the police action. A couple of policemen, including DSP Anand Kumar, were also injured in the stone pelting.
Additional police forces were rushed to strengthen the security in the area.
Later, a 5-member delegation of the SP led by party’s state president Naresh Uttam met the family members. After the SP delegation, a delegation of RLD led by Jayant Choudhury met the kin of the victim.
Both the party leaders held the Yogi Adityanath government responsible for the incidents and demanded his resignation on moral grounds.
The opposition leaders also raised questions on why the district magistrate had not been suspended while the district police chief had been placed under suspension.
On Thursday, the Hathras administration had clamped prohibitory orders in the village after which scuffles broke out as politicians, including those from Congress and Trinamool Congress, as well as the media tried to access the village. About 300 police personnel stood on guard to prevent anybody from entering the village.
After visiting Bhulagarhi village on Sunday, SP state president Naresh Uttam said the kin of the rape victim were not satisfied with the measures taken by the state government for ensuring justice to the family.
Former MP Dharmendra Yadav, who was also in the delegation, said the Samajwadi Party supported the demand of the victim’s family that the incident be probed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court instead of the CBI.
The other leaders in the delegation were Jugal Kishore Valmiki, former chairman of Safai Commission, and several former MLAs and MLCs.
The RLD condemned the lathi-charge on Jayant Chaudhary and party workers when they were going to meet the family of Hathras victim and said the Bharatiya Janata Party government was unsuccessfully trying to gag the voice of opposition parties.
In a statement, RLD national spokesman Anil Dubey said the party leader was going to meet the family of the victim and there was no harm in it.
“The BJP is using its police force which is more adept in encounters and cracking lathis on innocents to gag the voice of dissent,” he said.
He said the state government was destroying democracy by using force on unarmed protesters.