Hours before Rahul Gandhi arrived in a small village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, the state police and CRPF thronged the narrow roads. All vehicles were barred entry to the village, forcing eager journalists to walk over a kilometre to reach a nondescript home within.
The gate to the house was shut, a rope holding it closed.
“Due to VIP security, we cannot let anyone inside or near the family,” said a police official.
This home belongs to the family of Asha, a young Dalit woman who was allegedly gangraped and then died four years ago. “We did not know he would visit today,” said Asha’s sister-in-law. “We were told he may come at any point. But when the security situation started to become tight, we had a feeling he was on his way.”
Gandhi arrived at 11.30 am. He walked into Asha's home along with his team and spent 35 minutes inside. As he left, he did not interact with the media.
Hours after his visit, Gandhi tweeted in Hindi: “The things they told me during the meeting shook me…They’re being treated like criminals. They cannot move freely, they are kept under surveillance of guns and cameras at all times.”
आज हाथरस जाकर 4 साल पहले हुई शर्मनाक और दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण घटना के पीड़ित परिवार से मिला। मुलाक़ात के दौरान उन्होंने जो बातें बताई उसने मुझे झकझोर कर रख दिया।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 12, 2024
पूरा परिवार आज भी डर के साए में जी रहा है। उनके साथ क्रिमिनल्स के जैसा व्यवहार किया जा रहा है। वे स्वतंत्र रूप से कहीं आ-जा… pic.twitter.com/nGJZqBUnus
On Friday, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra cited the Hathras case, among other issues such as the Sambhal violence, to lash out at the BJP government in parliament. “In the parliament, the PM touches his forehead to the but when pleas are made for justice in Sambhal, Hathras and Manipur, he doesn’t have a wrinkle on his forehead.”
Asha’s death in 2020 had shaken the quiet village. She was found half-naked, bleeding and barely alive a few metres from her home. Asha died two weeks later in hospital and was forcibly cremated by the state police. Before her death, she accused four Thakur men of rape. All four were arrested with the CBI charging them with gangrape and murder.
In March 2023, the Hathras district court acquitted three of them – Ravi, Ramu and Luvkush – and sentenced the fourth, Sandeep, to life for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Ravi, Ramu and Luvkush now live near Asha’s family in the same village where she lived and died.
Surrounded by security personnel, day and night, the family is placing its hopes on the fulfillment of a promise made four years ago by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. A day after Asha’s death, Adityanath video-called Asha’s father and promised him a house and a job. The promise was reiterated soon after in an official letter from the CM.
But their wait continues. The government said in court that Adityanath’s promises were “not mandatory” or enforceable by law. It also said the family hadn’t been financially dependent on Asha so they did not need a job, and that they should hand over ancestral land if they wanted to relocate.
“Why should we hand over our family land?” Asha’s brother said to Newslaundry. “We are not asking for a house because we want more property. We need to relocate because our lives are in physical danger in this village dominated by Thakurs. And we can’t keep living under this CRPF protection forever.”
Finally, in July 2022, the Allahabad High Court directed the state government to consider giving the family a job and house within six months since the family had a “clear legal basis”. It’s now been two years since that order. Mehmood Pracha, the family’s advocate, told Newslaundry this “isn’t just contempt of court, it is a crime under law”.
And in early December, the high court told the state government to decide about relocating the family by January 8, 2025.
Gandhi’s visit came in the midst of this four-year waiting game, in response to a letter written to him by Asha’s father in July. The letter, a copy of which was accessed by Newslaundry, pleaded for help, saying they were serving “prison-like sentences for four years”. Asha’s father also wrote that his three grandchildren, Asha’s nieces, were unable to go to school and “no member of the family” was employed.
“The financial and mental condition of my family is very bad,” he wrote.
Similar letters were also sent to then Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, President Droupadi Murmu, Adityanath, and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav.
“Nobody asked us to write these letters. We wrote it out of pure desperation,” said Asha’s brother. “In fact, we had no hope of anyone even reading these letters but the fact that Rahul Gandhi visited us means we have not been forgotten and discarded by this country.”
This was Gandhi’s second visit to Hathras; he first visited the family with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on October 1, 2020, a day after Asha’s forcible cremation. Back then, ahead of the Congress leaders’ visit, the UP police had sealed the borders of the district and imposed section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code. When the Gandhis attempted to meet the family, the UP police detained them for violating section 144 restrictions and booked them under sections 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, due to the pandemic. The two later met the family.
“In the last four years, we have not been visited by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath or Narendra Modi even once. Are we not people of this country? Or are we Dalit people animals for them?” asked Asha's sister-in-law.
Gandhi’s tweet mentioned the failed promises from CM Adityanath. “We will fight with all our might to get them justice,” he wrote.
CRPF bar media, gates for four hours
After Rahul Gandhi left Hathras, CRPF personnel refused to let the media speak to the family. Two hours later, Asha’s brother spoke to Newslaundry on the phone: “We want to talk to you. We want to speak to media channels except Republic TV. But the CRPF are saying we can’t.”
When media personnel began questioning the CRPF personnel, one of them said, “Our hands are tied. We have orders from above. We cannot let the family speak to anyone.” One journalist said the CRPF “cannot act as jail wardens and control who a victim’s family speaks with”.
Finally, Asha’s family stepped out of their home and requested the CRPF to allow the media inside. They were turned down. Journalists began shooting videos of the CRPF personnel on guard.
Four hours after Gandhi left, the CRPF personnel opened the gates.
“You can speak to them but not inside the house. You can sit and talk to them in our bunker or here, but all conversations have to be in front of us,” one said.
After Asha’s family intervened and insisted, Newslaundry was permitted to enter the house and speak to the family.
"You see how it is? It’s like we’re locked in an open prison,” said Asha’s brother. “Yes, initially we also were hesitant to speak to the media. We don’t want to talk to Godi media. But after some time we wanted to speak and asked the CRPF but they kept saying we’ve to sit quietly.”
Meanwhile, Gandhi’s visit drew harsh responses.
Chandragupta Vikramaditya, the former head of the Congress’s unit in Hathras, told the media that the opposition was “close” to Asha’s family and had come to “listen to their problems”.
Brajesh Pathak, the deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, said Gandhi was “confused” and “unaware of the status of the case”. Calling the visit a “gimmick”, he said Gandhi “wants to push UP into the fire of anarchy and riots. He wants to provoke people, the people of Uttar Pradesh will never accept this”.
Pathak also told the media that the CBI had finished its inquiry into the case. “Under the BJP rule, no culprit is allowed to get away scot-free,” he said.
*The names of the victim and everyone in her family have been changed to protect identity.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
