A delegation of the Trinamool Congress, including senior party leader Derek O’Brien, was on Friday stopped at the border to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh when it was on their way to meet the family of the woman who died earlier this week after she was gang-raped, according to news agency ANI.
A 29-second clip tweeted by ANI shows a woman leader of the party being physically turned away by a person in plains clothes as O’ Brien comes into the frame. He is then seen being pulled away by the person and falling to the ground as a number of police personnel surround him. He is then seen helped get up as other leaders are also pushed away.
“He was pushed to the ground. Maybe he is injured too. He was attacked. How can they do it?” Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, another TMC leader who was a part of the delegation, was quoted by ANI as asking.
This comes a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were stopped and briefly detained while going to the meet the woman’s family. The Congress has criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for its handling of the case and has been demanding justice for the victim.
The Gandhis were later released. Both the Congress leaders alleged they were manhandled and roughed up by police personnel while they were marching towards Hathras to meet the victim’s family. However, Noida’s additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) Ranvijay Singh said that there was “no lathi charge” on anyone.
The 19-year-old woman had succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital where she was brought on Monday from Aligarh Muslim University Medical College