Hathras Gangrape: Police Detain Politicians As Unrest Flares

FILE PHOTO: An activist of the Socialist Unity Centre of India holds a placard during a protest in Ahmedabad on October 1, 2020, after the death of a rape victim who belonged to Hathras, Uttar Pradesh

Police briefly detained several opposition leaders on Thursday as they headed toward the house of a young Dalit woman who died this week after being gang-raped, the latest such attack to whip up nationwide anger and protests.

Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, siblings and leaders of the main opposition Congress Party, were blocked and arrested by police as they tried to first drive, then walk, to see the dead woman’s family in Hathras, a district of Uttar Pradesh about 100 km from Delhi.

Video footage from ANI news agency showed Rahul Gandhi jostling with police before falling to the ground.

The Gandhis and 250 other Congress workers had now been released, said Uttar Pradesh Congress Chief Ajay Kumar Lallu.

After clashes in the area on Wednesday, authorities said on Thursday they were barring gatherings of five or more people and would block politicians from the area.

In the latest case of violence against women to grab headlines in India, the 19-year-old woman from the Dalit community died from injuries on Tuesday after being attacked on Sept. 14 near her home, authorities said. The Dalit community often faces violence and discrimination.

Police have arrested four men for rape.

India is one of the world’s most dangerous places for women, with a rape occurring every 15 minutes, according to federal data – figures that rights groups say vastly underestimate the scale of the problem.

TROUBLE

Protesters and security forces clashed on Wednesday after police cremated the woman’s body. The victim’s brother said the cremation was against the wishes of her family, who had wanted to perform funeral rites. Local officials deny this.

Twenty-five people were arrested over the unrest, according to a police information report. A witness said police had wielded batons.

The victim and her brother are not being identified due to laws against naming victims of sexual violence. The four men arrested were all from a higher caste, her brother said.

Uttar Pradesh, which has a population of more than 200 million people and is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, ranks as particularly unsafe for women.

Opposition leaders have highlighted several other violent incidents in the state in recent days, including allegations of a similar gang rape of a Dalit woman in Balrampur.