Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, once again, sent the state government in a tizzy when he suddenly changed his programme and went to Lakhimpur to meet the family of 14-year-old Sonam who had allegedly been raped and murdered inside the Nighasan police station on June 10.
Mr Gandhi was on a one-day visit to the Indira Gandhi Flying Academy in Fursatganj on Wednesday to inspect the expansion plan of the academy which includes expansion of the runway and parking hangers for five planes besides setting up of an aircraft engineering institute.
He arrived in Lucknow and within minutes decided to go to Lakhimpur, which is about 140 km from the state capital.
In Lakhimpur, Mr Gandhi met the family members of the victim and went to the Nighasan police station to inspect the site of the crime.
“We support the family’s demand for a CBI probe in the incident. There is no hope of the victim’s family getting justice in Uttar Pradesh,” he said and expressed concern over the law and order situation in UP. It may be recalled that Sonam’s body was found hanging inside the Nighasan police station on June 10 and the family had claimed that she was raped and killed by the policemen.
The state government suspended 11 policemen of the Nighasan police station even as the police insisted that the girl had committed suicide.
The second post-mortem conducted by a panel of experts from Lucknow confirmed that the girl was strangulated, but ruled out rape.