India / Effort being made to save the culprits of Hathras incident: Kejriwal

New Delhi: The entire country wants that the culprits involved in the alleged Hathras gangrape incident should be given stringent punishment but some people feel that attempts are being made to save them, said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday.

"The entire country wants that the culprits should be given stringent punishment. Some people feel that attempts are being made to save them. At this time, the victim's family needs all possible help," Kejriwal said at a protest over the Hathras incident at Jantar Mantar.

"An effort is being made to save the accused. An effort is being made to do a cover-up. It should not happen. It is wrong. Whatever happened is brutal. The girl was raped, FIR was not filed on time. Nor did she get proper treatment on time. Her body was burnt in a manner which went against Hindu rituals. Now, it is being said that she was not raped. People are thinking that a cover-up is being done by the administration. The family needs sympathy and support," he added.

Kejriwal further said that there should be no politics on the issue of rape.

"The rape happened in Uttar Pradesh. Somebody says rape happened in Rajasthan too. What is this: this is not an argument. It is wrong. There should be no politics on this issue. Why should such an incident happen in UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mumbai or Delhi? No rape incidents should happen in the country. All parties should come together to bring a system to protect our girls," he said.

Kejriwal went to Jantar Mantar to participate in the protest along with Aam Aadmi party leader Atishi and other members.

Left parties, members of Bhim Army and student organisations staged a protest against the Hathras incident at Jantar Mantar.

Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad who took part in the protest said, "I will visit Hathras. Our struggle will continue till the time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister doesn't resign, and justice is served. I urge Supreme Court to take cognisance of the incident."

CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said, "The Uttar Pradesh government has no right to stay in power. Our demand is that justice should be served."

Youth Congress members dressed as Mahatma Gandhi, organised a demonstration at Jantar Mantar Road to protest against the alleged Hathras gangrape.

The 19-year-old Hathras victim died at Delhi's Safdarjung hospital on September 29, a fortnight after allegedly being gang-raped. All the four accused in the incident have been arrested.

The government has formed a three-member SIT to probe the case and said the matter will be heard in the fast track court.

The post-mortem report states that the victim suffered a fracture of "C6 cervical vertebra" and there was "extravasations of blood along the fracture line" and the underlying spinal cord was "contused with ascending oedema". Also, the postmortem report denies rape charges.