Women legislators of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came out in the defense of the three AAP MlAs accused of “molestation” and “assault” by a woman in the Delhi Assembly on Thursday.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of “planned conspiracy” against the party, Alka lamba, the AAP legislator, said that she along with four other women MlAs and three women police constables and the woman (victim) were present in the House when the ‘alleged’ incident happened. lamba with another AAP legislator Bandana Kumari and Bhavna Gaur addressed the media on Thursday evening.
“I want to tell this to the women of not just Delhi but those who are here from outside that the women legislators of AAP assure you that we will not allow any kind of injustice against women and fight it till the end. But we condemn such conspiracies wherein women are being used for maligning the party for political benefits,” lamba said.
A woman had accused three AAP MlAs including Okhla AAP MlA Amanatullah Khan, Malviya Nagar MlA Somnath Bharti and Tilak Nagar MlA Jarnail Singh of abusing and thrashing her on June 28, the police said. The Delhi Police has filed a cased against them.
Accusing the leader of Opposition, Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta of “cooking up a conspiracy with sacked minister Kapil Mishra” to malign the AAP, lamba said: “They think, they have found an easy way by involving the AAP MlAs in fake molestation cases. Not one but atleast six to seven of our legislators have been falsely accused of molestation just to malign the party image…It is clearly a conspiracy as it’s become obvious. While Gupta did not appear for the entire Assembly session, he made the entry possibly for this woman on June 28.”
She underlined that the suspicion became strong when the same woman was brought inside the Assembly in Mishra’s car. “It is clear that how they planned the conspiracy. We women legislators had already been suspicious about the entry of this woman. We felt that somewhere this woman might be used for such kind of accusations and that is exactly what happened. Except for Bandana Kumari, five women MlAs including me were present along with three police constables in casual wear.”
lamba said the woman “created drama” and shouted names of the three MlAs whom she later filed an FIR against charged of molestation at Civil lines police station. “The names of the ‘accused’, she shouted were not even present there. Eight women were present at the time that she quoted with regard to the time of the incident. She was absolutely safe,” lamba said.
“I had gone to see the proceedings of the House, but could not get the pass for the Visitor’s Gallery. And, while I was standing outside the building, a group of men, who were engaged in a scuffle, came towards me. They pushed and shoved me. I was later taken to a room and kicked,” she claimed in her complain.
lamba also pointed fingers at the Delhi Police for “witch hunting” the AAP leaders while lagging behind while “it comes to the security of women in real”. She referred to the case of airhostess, killed by her stalked at Mansarovar Park.