Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday deployed scores of police personnel in and around Hathras village where a young woman was allegedly gang-raped and tortured last month that sparked nationwide outrage. The girl who died in Delhi on Tuesday was reportedly cremated past midnight in a rushed way without her family's presence.
Opposition leaders and media were barred from meeting the victim's family as state police have barricaded and sealed off the village. Officials also spoke of a plan to declare the village a Covid-19 containment zone on suspicions that some policemen may have contracted the virus.
Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi and General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi were detained by UP police on the Yamuna Expressway on grounds that he violated prohibitory orders that barred the assembly of more than four people.
Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien, who reached the village with some of his party workers was stopped from reaching the young woman's house and was also pushed to the ground by a police team when he insisted on meeting the family.
Reporters who tried to get into the village were also stopped by police teams. In one of the instances, a reporter was squatting on the road, demanding the police under which law the police can stop journalists from reporting. Police replied he had instructions to stop outsiders from entering the village.
District Magistrate (DM) Praveen Kumar was caught on camera yesterday in a 22-second video where he was seen threatening the girl's family to change their statement.
"Do not finish your credibility. These media people are here today and tomorrow they will leave. Only we will be here. It is up to you to change your statement or not. We can also change," he said.
DM Praveen Kumar and district police chief Vikrant Vir are among the UP officials who have been summoned by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on October 12 to report on the facts of the case.
