Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi visited the family of Delhi gang-rape victim on Saturday, a day after the government cleared the anti-rape ordinance.
The Gandhis reached the victim's house at around 6pm and spent over an hour with her family.
The family members urged the congress leaders to strengthen the anti-rape law to prevent recurrence of such cases.
Sonia Gandhi hugged the victim's mother and was moved after hearing the hardships the family had undergone in educating the girl. The victim had pursued a course in physiotherapy and was doing her internship in a hospital in Delhi.
"Sonia Gandhi and the woman's mother held hands, and both hugged several times and cried," a source told IANS. "There was no agenda to Sonia Gandhi meeting the family.. they just went to express solidarity with the parents of the young woman," the source added.
Rahul Gandhi also interacted with the victim's bothers and gave his phone numbers to them.
The sources said that the victim's mother narrated the whole incident from the fatal night of the gruesome gang rape till the girl breathed her last at a Singapore Hospital on Dec 29.
The Gandhis met the family after the victim's father urged for a meeting with the congress chief to promulgate strict laws to stop atrocities against women based on the recommendations of the J S Verma Committee.
The sources have reported that the family did not put forward any demands and thanked the leaders for the clearance of the anti-rape law ordinance. They also congratulated Rahul Gandhi for becoming the congress vice president.
The Gandhis were accompanies by Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary and Mahabal Mishra during the 70-minute meeting.
The government on Friday cleared the anti-rape ordinance which recommended death penalty for offenders of rape crimes if the victim dies or falls into a vegetative state.
