No moral right to continue as CM: Priyanka to Adityanath over Hathras rape

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanded Yogi Adityanath's resignation and said he has "no moral right" to continue after allegations by Hathras rape victim's kin that police forced them to conduct last rites

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday demanded Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's resignation and said he has "no moral right" to continue in the post following allegations by the Hathras gang-rape victim's kin that police forced them to conduct her last rites.

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 in the early hours of Wednesday.

Her family alleged the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the dead of the night. However, local police officers told PTI that the cremation was carried out "as per the wishes of the family".

In a series of tweets, Congress General Secretary in-charge of UP, Priyanka Gandhi, said, "I was on the phone with the Hathras victim's father when he was informed that his daughter had passed away. I heard him cry out in despair."

"He had just been telling me that all he wanted was justice for his child. Last night the victim's father was robbed of the chance to take his daughter home for the last time and perform her last rites," she said.

Tagging Adityanath in a tweet, Priyanka Gandhi said, "RESIGN. Instead of protecting the victim and her family, your government became complicit in depriving her of every single human right, even in death. You have no moral right to continue as chief minister."

In another tweet in Hindi, she alleged that at 2:30 am on Wednesday the "victim's kin kept requesting", but the Uttar Pradesh administration "forcibly" cremated the woman.

"The government did not protect her when she was alive. The government did not provide her timely treatment when she was attacked. After her death, the government took away the right of the family to perform the last rites of their daughter and did not respect the deceased," Priyanka Gandhi said.

Hitting out at the UP chief minister, she alleged, "Gross inhumanity. You did not stop the crime but behaved like criminals. You did not stop the atrocities, but committed atrocity on an innocent child and her family twice."

Tagging Adityanath in a tweet and asking him to resign, Priyanka Gandhi said, "There is no justice in your rule, only injustice."

On September 14, the young woman had gone to the fields with her mother and went missing soon after. She was found later, beaten and tortured, her tongue cut as she bit it when the accused attempted to strangle her.

She was first admitted to Aligarh Muslim University's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital and then shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on Monday.