Hathras Rape: Borders Opened After 2 Days, Media Allowed To Enter

Two days after a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district was sealed due to the outrage over the brutal gang-rape and death of a 19-year-old girl, the borders have been re-opened on Saturday. The media will now be allowed to enter the district.

"Since the SIT probe in the village is complete, the restriction on media has been lifted. More than 5 media persons are now allowed to gather as Section 144 of CrPC is in place," Sadar SDM Prem Prakash told ANI.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with a group of other Congress MPs will visit Hathras today afternoon.

Rahul Gandhi said that no force in the world can stop him from visiting Hathras. “No force in the world can stop me from visiting Hathras and condoling with the grief-stricken family over there,” Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet today.

However, only the media is allowed to enter Hathras. “When orders come in to allow delegations, we will let everybody know. All allegations about phones of the family members being taken away or confining them in their homes are absolutely baseless,” Hathras Sadar SDM Prem Prakash Meena said.

Several opposition leaders have been stopped from entering the village even amid the ongoing protests.

On Thursday, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were stopped when they were leading a march to the village.

Trinamool Congress leaders Derek O'Brien, along with several other party leaders, on Friday, said they were manhandled by the UP police when they were just 1.5 km from the village where the victim lived.

According to PTI, the victim had gone to the fields with her mother, where the accused allegedly abducted her. She was found badly injured in nearby fields. The girl had been beaten and tortured so badly that she had bitten on her own tongue in pain when the accused attempted to strangle her.