Woman on hunger strike seeks punishment for Hathras killers

The Nirpuda village head in Baghpat district has gone on hunger strike until stringent punishment not given to Hathras gang-rape culprits. She also wrote a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and demanded to give stringent punishments to the culprits at the earliest.

Baghpat: The Uttar Pradesh government is facing a backlash after a girl was allegedly gang-raped and her body forcibly cremated in Hathras village in Uttar Pradesh.

The head of Nirpuda village in Baghpat district has gone on a hunger strike until stringent punishment is announced for the killers.

The village head Munesh Devi started the hunger strike from Saturday morning. Condemning the Hathras incident, she wrote a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and demanded to give stringent punishments to the culprits at the earliest.

The village head said, "this kind of incidents show how unsafe our girls and women are in this country. I have also written a letter to the Chief Minister demanding the arrest of the accused immediately."

Around 1,000 activists of the Left and the Congress on Saturday protested in Kolkata against the alleged gang rape in Hathras that has triggered a nationwide outrage.

The 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped at a village in Hathras by four men on September 14. After her condition deteriorated, she was referred to the Delhi's Safdarjung hospital where she breathed her last on Tuesday.

She was cremated 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.