A four-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress, led by the party’s Rajya Sabha MP, Derek O’ Brien, was prohibited from meeting the family of the gang-rape victim in Boolgarhi village of Hathras on Friday morning.
O’ Brien was allegedly manhandled by the police and not allowed to cross the barricading. Subsequently, TMC leaders sat on a ‘dharna’ to protest the treatment meted out to the elected representative.
Meanwhile, the police blocked all passages to the village and were not allowing the media to meet the victim’s family.
“Why were we not allowed inside the village to meet the family members of the victim? We just came to express condolences. The BJP has no respect for democracy and women are unsafe under their rule,” complained O’ Brien.
The party’s delegation comprised Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, Pratima Mandal, both TMC MPs, and Mamata Bala Thakur, former MP. They were wearing masks and carrying posters bearing messages of atrocities against women.
Also read: UP cops barricade Hathras village to stop media, Oppn from meeting family
{{/usCountry}}Also read: UP cops barricade Hathras village to stop media, Oppn from meeting family
{{/usCountry}}The leaders alleged that they were stopped around 1.5 kilometres before the house of the victim.
“We wanted to meet the family members of the deceased and extend condolences as directed by our party leader Mamta Banerjee. But we are not allowed to meet the family,” Pratima Mandal who condemned the UP police for not even allowing a “respectful cremation for the victim.”
“Dalits in Uttar Pradesh are subjected to atrocities and voters will give a reply against the UP government’s dictatorship in the next election,” she said.
There were reports that TMC leaders were staging a protest and planning to lodge a complaint at the police station against the treatment meted out to them.