Senior leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab and Leader of Opposition, on Tuesday said the Modi government at the centre was going hammers and tongs in protecting the upper caste goons allegedly involved in the Hathras horror. He said the UP police had been harassing family members of the victim in violation of human rights, by keeping them huddled in a room for several days, which clearly indicated that no for justice could be expected for the aggrieved family. Cheema was addressing media persons in Chandigarh here on Tuesday. Others present on the occasion were Principal Budhram, Manjit Singh Bilaspur, Kulwant Singh Pandori, Master Baldev Singh (all MLAs).Harpal Singh Cheema lamented "As soon as the news regarding USA president Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump testing positive for Covid-19 landed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately tweeted a prompt message seeking speedy recovery for them. He, however, had no time to utter a single word on the tragic rape of innocent Dalit girl in Hathras, which was a matter disgrace for the country’s prime minister”.Cheema alleged that the culprits in the high-profile Hathras incident belonged to the Thakur community to which chief minister Yogi belonged, saying that Yogi was going the whole hog to protecting the members of his community, by openly threatening the Dalits by holding meetings in the villages, in violation of the Section 144.
The LoP said that CM Yogi went on to say that the victim was not raped at all even as the Aligarh hospital report clearly corroborated that the innocent girl was brutally gang raped. Expressing his surprise over his peddling lies on the case, Cheema said the yogi government got registered cases against 14 people who came forward to extend a helping hand and buy justice for the family, which he termed as highly reprehensible. Cheema said that the Yogi government had been making false and frivolous statements on the issue to mislead the people of the state there by giving conflicting statements on the issue. The government claimed to have handed over the Hathras case with records to the CBI, adding that three days had passed and the case had not been handed over to the CBI, which raised questions of propriety of the Yogi government.The AAP leader said that in Punjab Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had pulled out of its long-standing alliance with the BJP, for their personal political end, adding like PM Narendra Modi, the Badal family did not utter a single word in favor of the victim and her aggrieved family facing the ire of the upper caste goons in UP. He said their maintaining stoic silence over the heinous crime against the Dalit girl had brought forth the anti-Dalit face of the 'Badals'.The LoP questioned the Yogi government as to why the innocent Hathras victim was allowed to be cremated at the dead of night? Cheema said quoting the victim’s mother "We got the shock of our life when we were told by the victim’s mother that the UP administration did not allow her (Mother) to see her face on her last journey and that she was cremated at midnight. This is the culmination of the Talibanised UP government ruling the state".He demanded a CBI probe into the Hathras under the watch of a sitting Supreme Court judge to complete the trial outside the state of Uttar Pradesh within three months.