Hathras gangrape: Accused were harassing her for months, says mother of 19-year-old

According to the murdered woman’s mother, two of the four men arrested for the gang rape and killing would follow her daughter and block her path when she would go out for any work.

The family of the 19-year old raped and murdered in Hathras said they first heard about her being harassed by local Thakur men about four months ago. Her mother initially thought that they must be joking with her.

Activists light candles during a protest against the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman who was allegedly gang-raped in UP’s Hathras, in Bhopal.(PTI Photo)

According to the murdered woman’s mother, two of the four men arrested for the gang rape and killing would follow her daughter and block her path when she would go out for any work.

“Sandeep and Luv Kush would sometimes chase her. On other occasions, they would spread out their hands and block her path if she tried to go past them,” she said.

Over the past few months, the young woman started refusing to go out alone, she said. “If she needed to buy even a soap, she would take her sister-in-law along with her,” said the mother.

On one such occasion, her sister-in-law had allegedly encountered those men harassing the 19-year-old woman.

“I took them on and told them I would get them jailed. But it didn’t make much difference,” her sister-in-law said.

In her official statement to the magistrate, the victim’s mother has mentioned the past harassment and her daughter’s unwillingness to leave the house.

But Rakesh Singh, the grandfather of Sandeep and the uncle to Luv Kush, denied the allegations. “They never protested against any such molestation. They never complained about it. These are all lies,” said Singh.

The youngest of five siblings, the victim had studied only till class four. “She couldn’t read or write sentences, but she loved our buffaloes. She was a beautiful girl who never even used any make-up,” said her mother.