Authorities in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras reopened the borders on Saturday and said they will allow the media to enter the village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, where a 19-year-old woman was gang-raped, authorities said.
Police had barricaded about 2 km from the village on the main road early Thursday, blocked all access roads and deployed policemen on the muddy tracks and in the fields to prevent any “outsiders” from entering the village.
Officials had also said that section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which prohibits the gathering of four or more people, was blocked in the area. They said the ongoing investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was the reason for the restrictions.
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“Since the SIT investigation in the village was completed, the restriction on the media was lifted. Now more than five people from the media are allowed to meet as Section 144 of the CrPC is in place, ”said Prem Prakash Meena, Sadar’s chief division magistrate, as quoted by the ANI news agency.
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“Only the media is allowed at the moment. When orders come in to allow delegations, we’ll let everyone know. All the accusations about the theft of telephones of the relatives or their confinement in their homes are absolutely unfounded ”, said Meena.
UP Police Director General HC Awasthi will visit Hathras amid controversy over the local administration’s handling of the alleged rape case.
Congressional leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, are expected to visit the village later in the day to meet with the woman’s family, the party said. The woman was allegedly raped by four men of the dominant caste on 14 September when she had gone to the fields of her village to collect fodder for livestock.
She was admitted to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College of the Muslim University of Aligarh after being partially paralyzed and then transferred to Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi when her condition did not improve. She died Tuesday morning.
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