Rahul, Priyanka leave for Hathras with Wasnik n KC Venugopal, genl secys after permission
In view of the imposition of prohibitory orders under section 144 CRPC , the Uttar Pradesh police n administration has granted permission to five persons with the Congress group comprising of Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mukhul Wasnik, K. C. Venugopal and Ghulam Nabi Azad.
All the cars and thousand of Congress workers including member of parliaments accompanying them have been asked to go back.
After immense efforts and confrontation with the police with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi appealing the workers to calm down they were able to come out of the crowd n proceed towards Hathras.
There were scuffles n subsequent lathi charge on Congress workers during the melee with acrimonious slogan shouting by Congress workers who wanted to accompany Rahul n Priyanka going on unabated.
There were thousands of party workers holding Congress flags raising anti government slogans demanding justice in the Hathras case.
It took almost two hours or more to clear the stampede at the DND flyover n Expressway where hundreds of police and the provincial armed constabulary personel were present in helmets n lathies includung thousands of cars stranded on the way creating tremendous snarl n confusion all around with mediamen of electronic channels giving a running commentary n thousands of commuters stucked in traffic.
Hathras is about 135 kilometres away and the Congress delegation comprising of Rahul Priyanka n others would be reaching by late evening.
The Congress team would be meeting the bereaved family of the deceased to not only extend their condolences but will also converse with them about their plight and the alleged pressure exerted on them by the police etc including various other aspects of the tragedy.
Meanwhile the Suprintendent of Police of Hathras n five other police officials have been suspended by the Uttar Pradesh government obviously under the instructions of the UP CM Yogi Adityanath with whom the prime minister Narendra Modi had a few days ago telephonically spoken after which the Special Investigation Team was instituted n the investigations commenced.
Those suspended were Praveen Kumar DM, Prem Prakash Meena SDM, Vikrant Veer, SSP, etc. According to Avinash Awasthi : The aggrieved family will be given full justice and their every complaint will be addressed forthwith. The five officers were suspended on the recommendation of the SIT headed by the Uttar Pradesh home secretary with the DGP n a woman IPS officer its members.
