Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati today slammed the Congress government in Rajasthan over the gang-rape of a Dalit woman on April 26.
At a press conference in Lucknow today, Mayawati said, “The Congress government suppressed this incident till the end of the election in Rajasthan to preserve their political benefits and threatened the family of the victim to keep quiet about it”.
BSP Chief Mayawati: The guilty in Alwar gang-rape case should be hanged till death. Supreme Court should take action against the Congress government, police and the administration in the state. This matter is not just related to Dalits but all women. pic.twitter.com/CXm5GnCm6D
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 11, 2019
She added, “We want the Supreme Court to act against the Congress, the police and the state administration and punish them as strictly as possible”.
The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister earlier demanded the death penalty for the guilty.
The rape occurred in Alwar district and has provoked additional outrage for the police’s allegedly delayed reaction to the victim’s complaint.
The woman had informed authorities of the crime on April 30 but the police failed to act on her complaint till May 7, leading her husband to claim they did so because of the election; the state voted across two phases – April 29 and May 6 – of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Mayawati does not by Rajasthan government’s take on Alwar rape slack
On April 26, the woman was traveling on a motorcycle with her husband when the accused, who were on two bikes, stop them in Alwar’s Thanagazi area and took them to an isolated place nearby. They thrashed the husband and raped the woman in front of him for more than 2 hours.
Not just this, Mukesh Gurjar filmed the crime on his mobile phone. After the couple went to the police, the accused allegedly demanded money for not circulating the video on social media.
BSP supremo Mayawati also claimed that given the Congress government’s approach to this crime, the Dalit rape victim was unlikely to get justice. She said, “Our party wants the Supreme Court of India to take charge of the investigation of this case”.
With two of the seven phases of the general election still left, the case has also acquired political overtones in the state.
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