Outrage over girl’s assault, death in India
new delhi — Indian minister VK Singh on Thursday said “we as humans” had failed a eightyear-old girl from a nomadic community who was gangraped and killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district.
Protesters took to the streets over the incident in different parts of the country, including the national capital. They chanted slogans and demanded speedy justice for the victim. “She will not be denied justice,” the minister of state for external affairs said in his tweet. — PTI
NEW DELHI — India’s federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday took over an investigation into allegations that a state legislator from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party raped a teenager nine months ago, police said.
State Chief Minister Adityanath on Thursday asked the CBI, the equivalent to the FBI in the United States, to take over the Unnao case, police said.
“We have collected crucial evidence and handed over all the details to the CBI to further investigate the case,” said O.P. Singh, the most senior police officer in Uttar Pradesh. Police on Thursday registered an FIR against ruling BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in connection with the alleged gangrape of a minor girl in Unnao, hours after the government said it would hand over investigation into the case to the CBI.
Till the premier investigating agency takes over, the local police will continue with the probe, Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said.
The decision on whether to arrest the accused MLA will be taken by the CBI on the merits of the case after investigations, he said.
Opposition parties have already seized on the attack in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh in the north, which is ruled by a rising star of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The rape in the city of Unnao might never have seen the light of day, had the victim not tried to set fire to herself last week outside the residence of the chief minister in the state capital of Lucknow.
She was stopped by guards, but the suicide attempt brought to public attention her accusations against Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a longstanding member of the state legislature for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Ajay Pal Singh, the lawyer for Sengar, said the allegations against the legislator were baseless and that investigations would prove his innocence. “This case is a conspiracy to malign Sengar and disrupt his political career,” Singh said.
In a bizarre sequence of events, the victim’s father died in police custody this week, fanning suspicion that Sengar was somehow involved.
The victim’s father had been beaten before being taken into custody following a complaint by his assailants.
Police officer Singh said they have launched an inves tigation into accusations that Sengar played a role in the assault. The Unnao police on Thursday morning registered the case against Sengar under various sections of IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in the Makhi police station area.
The FIR has been registered under sections 376 (rape), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage,), 363 (kidnapping) and 506 (criminal intimidation). —