Nangal protest swelling as police find ways to end it
New Delhi: As one steps on Pankha Road at Old Nangal, crowds, holding banners of "Justice for Gudiya" and demanding speedy justice for the victim, keep swelling even as various ministers and activists keep paying visits and expressing their solidarity.
The fervent protests over the alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old Dalit girl by a crematorium priest and his associates in the Delhi Cantonment area here has been going on for five days now
Significantly, law enforcement authorities on Thursday cleared one carriageway of the road where the protest is underway.
The hurried move came after the Indian Army intelligence had sent inputs of "security concerns" about the agitation to the area Deputy Commissioner of Police. While the police had confirmed the inputs, they added that the Army also needed the carriageway for the upcoming Independence Day security arrangements.
A senior police officer said the carriageway was cleared on late Wednesday evening and efforts are being made to clear the other portion of the road as well. "You are requested to take necessary measures to clear the road and protesters may be removed immediately to avoid any untoward security incident which might hamper the smooth functioning of the defence units/establishment," the Army had told police.
Meanwhile, the final cremation of whatever is left of the victim's body, which was supposed to take place on Thursday, was delayed. The police have said that the girl's body was burned after the alleged crime — to a point where only parts of her legs had been salvaged. The remains have now been sent to a forensic laboratory.
Kin of accused deny
And as calls for the culprits in the case to be hanged and be given the harshest punishment grew, the family of at least one accused, Laxmi Narayan has flatly denied all allegations against him, adding he was merely passing the scene of the crime when he was arrested.
Narayan's wife, Kiran told Millennium Post, "He leaves for work 8:30 in the morning and returns around 7 pm...on Sunday evening he went to a nearby barber to get a shave and when he was returning back home, he saw a crowd gathered around the crematorium...he had only enquired as to what was the issue and he was caught and arrested," the wife said.
His father, a retired official of the Border Roads Organisation, insisted that Narayan did not know any of the other accused. "I haven't taught my kids to behave in such a way," the father said.
As per locals, the other three accused, Radhe Shyam, Kuldeep and Salim, stay around a kilometre away from the area at Sagarpur but most of them were tight-lipped about their addresses. "Kuldeep mostly used to stay inside the crematorium and was chased away from his house several years back after his wife died...his son is a lawyer," one of the villagers claimed.
