Unnao victim’s family demands accused be chased and killed
| Date :08-Dec-2019 |
NEW DELHI/UNNAO :
THE tragic death of the Unnao gangrape victim led to nationwide outrage with protests erupting in several parts on Saturday and her family demanding that the perpetrators be “chased and killed” like in the Hyderabad incident while Opposition parties accused the BJP Government of Uttar Pradesh of failing to provide security to those brutalised by sexual violence. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath assured the grieving family of speedy justice, saying a fast track court would decide the case and all the accused persons were arrested. He later announced an ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh for the family.
The Opposition alleged that law-and-order situation has “completely collapsed” and the state has become the country’s “rape capital” and demanding “removal” of the Adityanath Government. After battling for her life with more than 90 per cent burns for almost 40 hours, the 23-year-old woman died following a cardiac arrest on Friday night at the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi.
Her family took her body back to her village in Unnao district by road after a post-mortem examination. In the evening, when Uttar Pradesh Ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Kamal Rani Varun along with local BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj went to meet her family, they met with protests. The protesters shouted ‘Vaapas jaao, vapaas jaao’ (Go Back) and raised slogans against the State Government and Maharaj. A number of protesters including some local Congress leaders sustained injuries as police used force to disperse the crowd. In Lucknow, police baton charged Congress workers who staged a protest against the Government in Hazratganj outside the BJP headquarters.
In the national capital, members of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) took out a candlelight march demanding justice for the family of the victim. Stating that the perpetrators responsible for her death have no right to live, the victim’s father and brother demanded that they either be chased by police and killed in an encounter or be hanged to death. “I want to see the accused persons being chased and shot dead,” the woman’s father said at their house in Unnao. “I do not want money or any other kind of help. I want to see that the accused are chased and shot dead like the Hyderabad encounter or hanged to death,” he said. Sister and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met the victim’s family in Unnao. BSP supremo Mayawati asked the UP Government to ensure “proper justice” to the victim’s family, saying the young woman’s death was extremely painful and that her party was with her family in their hour of grief. “To prevent such traumatic incidents all over the country State Governments should create fear of law among people and in view of the incidents,” Mayawati tweeted.