UP Police File Case Against COVID+ AAP MLA Who Visited Hathras

The MLA had announced just four days before meeting the Hathras victim’s family that he was COVID positive.

AAP MLA Kuldeep Kumar had visited the Hathras rape victim's family four days after announcing that he was COVID-19 positive.

(Photo Courtesy: Screenshot/Kuldeep Kumar/Twitter)

The Uttar Pradesh Police has registered a case against Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Delhi, under the Epidemic Act for visiting Hathras after he'd tested COVID-19 positive.

MLA Kuldeep Kumar had visited Hathras in Uttar Pradesh on 4 October to meet the family of the 19-year-old Dalit woman who was allegedly raped and murdered by four upper-caste Thakur men in her village.

However, just five days prior to that, on 29 September, the MLA had announced on Twitter that he was COVID-19 positive.

"I have mild fever for the last two days and I got a COVID-19 test done today. The report has come out as positive. I will be in home isolation. Those who came in contact with me in the last two to three days, please get yourselves tested", Kumar had tweeted.

Then again on the 4 October, he tweeted that he'd come to Hathras to meet the woman's family.

In another tweet, he posted a video with the message:

"Just returned after meeting the family of the Hathras victim. An atmosphere of fear in the family is being created. This is the murder of democracy and Constitution. In Uttar Pradesh's Yogi-raj, there is no law but jungle-raj."

"I got to know from TV media that Hathras police has filed an FIR against me. BJP leaders and the IT cell have together spread the propaganda that an AAP MLA went with corona to Hathras. I went to meet the Hathras family after a negative report...If Hathras police had asked for my negative report, I would have shown it,” Kumar told NDTV, reacting to the incident.

Till date, the UP Police has filed at least 19 FIRs across the state in relation to the Hathras case, for alleged attempts of disrupting peace in the state.

(With inputs from NDTV)