This story is from December 20, 2020

Want to leave our village: Hathras girl kin

We want to move out of our village,” the victim’s younger brother told TOI on Saturday.The family had approached the Allahabad high court with a plea to secure their relocation to Delhi so they could “move freely.” So far, no one from the administration has reached out to them about this.
Want to leave our village: Hathras girl kin
AGRA: They don’t step out of their house, no one comes in without a thorough check and they have barely spoken to anyone else in the village for three months now. The family of the 19-year-old Dalit girl from Hathras who was allegedly gangraped and murdered just wants out.
“We had said this before and we say this again. We want to move out of our village,” the victim’s younger brother told TOI on Saturday.
The families of the four accused are influential people in the village and the Dalit families, four of them, would “stay out of the way” of the 60 upper caste families. “We fear we could be harmed,” he said.
In October, for instance, they had received a text: “My advice to you is that you admit to the truth or all the land in this country will not be enough for you to hide. I will get you and your mother jailed for killing her (the victim).” He saw the message in November and told the police and CBI who, he added, said they’d look into it.
But around the time the message was sent, the family had expressed concerns about their safety and provided a security cover. Two weeks after that, the family had approached the Allahabad high court with a plea to secure their relocation to Delhi so they could “move freely.” So far, no one from the administration has reached out to them about this.
“CRPF personnel always accompany us but don’t bother us. No one enters without them checking with us first. But the security we have now will not be there forever,” he said. The Hathras district magistrate, Praveen Kumar Laxkar, had told them as much in a purported video that went viral a day after the girl was cremated by the police without her family’s consent. “How can we feel safe?” the victim’s sister-in-law said. The younger brother has quit his job as a lab attendant in Ghaziabad.
In all this, there is, unavoidably, the question of basic sustenance.
“We have received the Rs 25 lakh compensation but no house or job has been provided, which the CM had promised,” he said.
Initially, the district administration had been sending food supplies and cattle fodder to their house.
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