Rape survivor will get justice: Rahul
VISIT Congress chief Rahul Gandhi promises action; CM Ashok Gehlot assures effective monitoring of the case
JAIPUR: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday met the Dalit woman who was gangraped allegedly in front of her husband in Rajasthan’s Alwar district.
After meeting the victim and her family in Thanagazi area of the district, Gandhi said, “Such things will not be tolerated. The victim will get justice.”
He continued, “The moment I got to know of the incident, I called Gehlot ji and told him that I want to come. This is not a political but an emotional issue for me; wrong has been done to a girl. We want to give a message across the country and not just in Rajasthan that ‘this will not be tolerated’.” On April 26, five accused had raped a married Dalit woman in front of her husband, and later circulated a video of the incident on social media. All the accused have been arrested.
The Congress chief stayed with the family for around half an hour. He was accompanied by chief minister Ashok Gehlot, state Congress chief Sachin Pilot, AICC general secretary Avinash Pande and Alwar MP candidate Jitendra Singh. Gandhi reached the victim’s home at 10.30am and left by 11am.
Gandhi was earlier scheduled to meet the victim on Wednesday; his visit was postponed due to bad weather.
When asked about the conversation with the family, Gandhi said, “They spoke about justice. They will get justice and action will be taken against those responsible.”
On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charges of negligence by the state government in the case, he said, “I am not here to do politics over the issue and here to meet the family. This family will get ‘Nyay’.” Hitting out at Modi, Gehlot said, “He is doing politics and the entire country knows this. He speaks lies, which is unfortunate. The BJP is doing protest (over the incident); this shows who is doing politics.”
The CM said, “The FIR in the case was lodged on May 2. The charge sheet in the case will be filed in next seven days. For the victim a job will be managed.”
Gehlot announced dividing Alwar into two police districts – two superintendents of police will now handle the district. “Alwar is a critical district. We have got it studied; whereas on an average 6000 to 10000 cases get registered in a district annually across Rajasthan, here ( i n Alwar) the number is 18,000 annually. Looking to which we have decided to divide the district in two parts for policing,” he said. The chief minister said as assured by Gandhi, the accused will get punishment and effective monitoring of the case will be done. Gehlot said after the incident the state government has decided that a victim woman can lodge a complaint at the SP office if she faces problem at police station.
In addition, the government is going to appoint a woman nodal officer of deputy SP rank at the district level on the lines of nodal officer to deal with the cases related to atrocities on SC/STS.
This is the third incident in Rajasthan where Rahul Gandhi came to meet the victim. In 2011, he came to Gopalgarh area in Bharatpur where communal clashes happened; in 2016, he visited Bikaner to meet family of Delta Meghwal whose body was found in a water tank; and he met the Alwar gang rape victim.
Meanwhile, all the six accused of the gang rape were produced before the Special Judge of SC/ST court Brijesh Sharma after the expiry of police remand. The court sent them to jail until May 30.