India: AAP demands removal of UP women's commission chief over her silence on Hathras rape

 Vimla Batham with Modi

Noida (UP), Oct 7 (PTI) Aam Aadmi Party workers in Gautam Buddh Nagar have questioned the silence of Uttar Pradesh Women's Commission chief Vimla Batham over the Hathras case and demanded her removal from the post.

Around 50 AAP workers, including district unit president Bhupendra Jaduan, on Tuesday tried to gherao Batham's residence here over the issue but were stopped midway by police, party office-bearers said.

The AAP workers, who had started a march from the ISCKON temple in Sector 33 to her house nearby, submitted to police a memorandum addressed to UP Governor Anandiben Patel, demanding Batham's removal in the wake of the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman after an alleged gangrape and over crimes against women in the state.

Cases of rape with women and girls are emerging in the state every day. They are not safe in Uttar Pradesh. The state's women commission chief Vimla Batham has not spoken a single word on these issues despite serious incidents in Hathras, Balrampur, Bulandshahr, etc, she has not gone to meet the victim's families also, stated the memorandum.

Looking at the inactivity of the women's commission chief, we demand her removal from the post, the memorandum stated.