Rahul Gandhi, sister Priyanka released from detention by India's Uttar Pradesh police

India's Uttar Pradesh police has released Indian Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from detention.

The two were detained on their way to Hathras after Rahul Gandhi accused the Uttar Pradesh police of pushing him to the ground and resorting to baton-charge, reports NDTV.

His sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, was also accompanying him to meet the family of the woman who was gangraped. 

The two leaders were marching on the highway between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh after their convoy was stopped on its way to Hathras, reports NDTV

The crime has provoked nationwide outrage. The Gandhis sat on the road with hundreds of supporters after the Uttar Pradesh police refused to let them continue.

Ahead of the Indian Congress leaders' visit, the UP administration enforced a ban on large gatherings and put up barricades at the borders citing the coronavirus, reports NDTV.

Even as Congress workers blocked roads and chanted slogans, the Gandhis' SUV crossed the border, but their convoy was stopped at Greater Noida, at a point that is about 142 km to Hathras.

The Gandhis then got off the vehicle and started walking with scores of Congress workers.

The 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died in a Delhi hospital on Tuesday a fortnight after she was gang-raped at Hathras while she was out to collect fodder with her mother, was cremated in the early hours of Wednesday, with her family alleging the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the dead of the night.

The woman had suffered multiple fractures, paralysis and had been left struggling to breathe by a neck injury when she was assaulted by four upper caste men from her village on September 14, reports NDTV.

The police said there was a gash in her tongue because she had bitten it when the men were trying to strangle her.