Priyanka Gandhi meets Unnao victim’s family
LUCKNOW : Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday blamed the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh for the death of the Unnao rape victim. Priyanka met the family of the Unnao rape victim, who died last night at a hospital in Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital after she was set on fire by the men who allegedly raped her.
She said, “Victim’s whole family has been constantly harassed since last year. I have heard that the culprits have some BJP connection. That is why they were being shielded. There is no fear among criminals in the state.”
“Chief Minister is saying there is no place for criminals in the state but what has he turned the state into, I think there is no place for women here.” Hours after the death of the 23-year-old gang rape victim at a Delhi hospital, the Congress leader alleged that the “hollow law and order mechanism in UP” denied justice to survivors of sexual violations.
She said the UP government did not provide security to the Unnao gang rape victim even though a similar incident had earlier taken place in the same district. She was referring to another alleged attack in Unnao district in July when the car in which a woman, who had accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar of raping her, was was hit by a truck.
In a tweet, Priyanka said: “Why the victim of Unnao gangrape case was not given security keeping in mind an earlier incident of Unnao? What action has been taken on the police official who refused to register an FIR? What steps are being taken by the government to stop crime against the women, which take place on a daily basis?”
In another tweet she said: “I pray to God to give courage to the family members of Unnao victim”, and went on to say that it was due to everyone”s collective failure as a society that the victim was not able to get justice.
The Congress leader, who was on a visit to the state capital Lucknow, then rushed to Unnao to meet the family of the victim and extend condolences to them. A number of senior UP Congress leaders were present with her during the meeting at the home of the victim”s family. A huge crowd of villagers had gathered outside the house.
The rape victim succumbed to severe burns in Delhi”s Safdarjung Hospital late on Friday night and the body is being taken to her village in Unnao district by road, her family said. The woman was set ablaze allegedly by five persons, including two men accused of raping her, and had suffered 90 per cent burns. She was airlifted to the Delhi hospital from Lucknow.
Meanwhile, in Lucknow,Congress workers, who staged a protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Lucknow on Saturday were lathicharged by the UP Police. The incident was reported outside the UP Vidhan Sabha, where Samajwadi Party president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav also sat on a ‘dharna’ in protest over the incident.
The Congress leaders are claiming that the Unnao rape-murder accused are being shielded by the police as they have some BJP connection. The protesting leaders alleged that the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh protects criminals due to which such incidents are happening again and again.
In the meantime, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi too launched a sharp attack on the BJP government over the recent incidents of rape-murder in the country, saying, people taking law and order in their hand stems from the fact that ‘the man running the country believes in violence’.
“There is a reason for this breakdown of our institutional structures, a reason that people are taking law into their own hands. It is because the man who is running this country believes in violence and indiscriminate power,” Rahul was quoted as saying by ANI today.
“Violence against minority communities, hatred being spread against them. Violence against Dalits, thrashing them, cutting off their arms. Atrocities against Tribals, snatching their land. There is a reason for this dramatic increase in violence,” he said.
(Bureau Report With Agency Inputs ).
