Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will fly to Rajasthan on Wednesday to meet the 19-year-old Dalit woman, who was allegedly gang-raped in Alwar on April 26.
He will meet her before flying to Punjab for campaigning ahead of the last phase of the national polls on Sunday, according to Congress functionaries aware of Gandhi’s programme.
Gandhi is visiting the woman as Rajasthan’s Congress government has drawn flak over its handling of the case. The Rajasthan police allegedly delayed the filing of a First Information Report (FIR) in the case. An FIR was filed only after a purported video of the sexual assault began circulating on social media. Five men had raped the woman after assaulting her husband. They also allegedly filmed the rape.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the rape at an election rally on Sunday and questioned why Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati had not withdrawn support from the Congress government in Rajasthan over it. Modi accused the Rajasthan government of suppressing the case until the fifth phase of national polling was over on May 6.
The Rajasthan government removed Alwar’s police superintendent, Rajeev Pachar, and suspended station house officer, Sardar Singh, over the alleged inaction in the case. The police have arrested the five accused for the gang rape and another person for circulating the video of the sexual assault.
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday hit out at Modi for politicising the case and insisted that his government has done all that it could and will not spare any guilty.
BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Kirodi Lal Meena has been holding protests and demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the case. On Tuesday, his supporters scuffled with the police as they were trying to a block railway track in Dausa.
Meena was later detained for allegedly leading the rioters.
First Published:
May 15, 2019 07:03 IST
Source: HindustanTimes