01 October,2020 07:27 AM IST | New Delhi | Agencies
Members of Indian Youth Congress being detained by the police during a protest against the death of a Dalit woman who was gang-raped in Hathras, in New Delhi, on Wednesday. Pic/PTI
The 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died in a Delhi hospital a fortnight after she was gang-raped in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras, was cremated here in the early hours of Wednesday, with her family alleging the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the dead of the night.
Local police officers, however, said the cremation was carried out "as per the wishes of the family", even as the incident triggered protests in Hathras with several people coming out on roads.
The family left Safdarjung hospital in Delhi on Tuesday night amid heavy police deployment. The body was taken by the Uttar Pradesh police, which reached Hathras earlier than the family members, claimed a kin of the victim.
"The cremation was done around 2.30am-3 am," the father of the deceased woman told PTI on Wednesday morning. In the moments preceding the cremation, a brother of the woman told PTI, "Police have forcibly taken the body, and my father along with them for cremation.
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When my father reached Hathras, he was immediately taken (to the crematorium) by the police." Another relative said 30 to 40 people accompanied the woman's father to the crematorium. Senior police and administration officials were also present at the crematorium in the middle of the night, an official said.
Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad and its Delhi unit head, Himanshu Balmiki, have been detained by the UP police while they were on their way to Hathras, accompanying the family of a 19-year-old Dalit gangrape victim, Azad's associates alleged on Wednesday. Aligarh police officers denied knowledge about it.
AAP MLA Ajay Dutt on Wednesday claimed he was "kicked and slapped" by senior Delhi police officers when he went to meet the family of the Hathras gang rape victim at the Safdarjung hospital. Delhi police refused to comment on the allegation. Dutt told the media he was at the hospital and when he sought to know the whereabouts of the victim's body, he was taken to a room and assaulted.
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