Stepping up pressure on the state government in the case of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker having levelled sexual harassment charge against a former state BJP general secretary (organisation) Sanjay Kumar, a delegation of Congress leaders met the Governor Baby Rani Maurya on Monday and demanded her intervention for the arrest of the BJP leader and an inquiry by a sitting High Court (HC) judge into the matter. The delegation led by the state Congress president Pritam Singh also handed over a memorandum to the Governor which contains the party’s demands on the issue.
In the memorandum, the Congress leaders alleged that by just relieving Sanjay Kumar of his duties, BJP has provided him with a convenient soft exit. The Congress also cast question over the refusal of Uttarakhand police to register an FIR against Kumar even though the victim had submitted complaint to the police by e -mail. The memorandum also mentioned what it called highly deplorable and derogatory comments about the women who are in politics made by the BJP Mahanagar president Vinay Goyal after the woman BJP functionary approached him with the complaint against Kumar. The memorandum also flayed the insensitivity shown by the state BJP brass regarding the issue even after being reportedly informed by Goyal.
The Congress leaders said that they have apprised the Governor of the wide-spread anger triggered by the matter in the people of the state. They said that their party are staging agitation because of the matter’s connection with the honour of the women of the state.
The Congress leaders requested the Governor to order the state home department to act on the complaint of the victim and register FIR against the BJP leader. They also demanded an independent inquiry headed by a sitting HC judge be ordered in the case.
Besides the state party president, former minister Hira Singh Bisht, state Congress vice- president Surya Kant Dhasmana, chairman of the disciplinary committee Pramod Kumar Singh and the Mahanagar president Lal Chand Sharma were among those present in the delegation.