Defaming Hathras victim revolting, says Priyanka

Lucknow: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday accused the BJP of building a narrative to defame the Hathras victim, saying she deserves justice and not slander. She charged that a narrative is being built by the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh for holding the woman responsible for crimes committed against her.

"Creating a narrative that defames a woman's character and holding her somehow responsible for crimes committed against her is revolting and regressive," she said on Twitter.

"A heinous crime has been committed at Hathras, leaving a 20-year-old Dalit woman dead. Her body has been burned without the participation or consent of her family. She deserves justice not slander," Gandhi also said.

The Congress general secretary for Uttar Pradesh also used a hashtag, accusing the BJP of being "shameless".

Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had earlier visited the victim's family last Saturday. The 19-year-old Dalit woman from Hathras was allegedly raped and attacked by four upper-caste men. She later succumbed to injuries at a Delhi hospital. The incident has triggered outrage across the country after TV footage showed that the local police cremated the body at night.

Her family members alleged they were not allowed to bring the body home one last time, but police claimed they had the family's consent for the cremation. The family is now demanding a judicial probe into the incident while the UP government has sought a CBI probe.

The main accused has written to the Uttar Pradesh police, claiming that he and the three other accused are being framed in the case and sought "justice" for the four men. He also accused the woman's mother and brother of torturing her.

Sandeep Thakur, who is in jail along with the three others, has written a letter to the police in Hathras, claiming that he and the 20-year-old woman were "friends". "Apart from meeting, we used to speak on the phone once in a while," he wrote , in the handwritten letter in Hindi. The letter has the thumb impressions of all four accused.

The UP police had claimed that call records reveal that the woman's brother had was in touch with Sandeep Thakur. Some 104 calls were made between the brother and Sandeep Thakur from October last year to March, the police claim.

Sandeep Thakur, in his letter, alleged that her family did not like their friendship. "On the day of the incident, I had gone to meet her in the fields that day where her mother and brothers were also present. I returned home after being asked by her to do so. I then started feeding cattle," he said.