Amid the ongoing war of words between the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government over the Sakinaka rape and murder incident, the BJP on Thursday found itself in an embarrassing situation on Thursday, as the Mumbai police booked one of its party workers who had allegedly molesting a woman in a municipal corporator’s office on Independence Day last year.
In a development that has given fresh ammunition to the ruling MVA to take on the principal Opposition party which is demanding convening of a special session of the State Legislature to discuss Sakinaka rape and murder incident, the Borivili police on Wednesday registered a First Information Report (FIR) in connection with an incident that allegedly took in the Vazira Naka office of the BJP Municipal Corporator Anjali Khedekar.
According to the complaint lodged by the victim woman with the Borivli police station, the accused -a local BJP civic ward leader - had promised to help her join the party, called her to corportor Khedekar’s office and then allegedly molested her inside the premises late on the evening of August 15,2020.
The victim woman told the police that after she went to the office, the accuse2d BJP workers downed the shutters, switched off the lights, molested her, by saying that she would have to compromise if she wanted to work in the party.
The victim woman said that she somehow managed to walk out of the corporator’s office. Five days later, she complained verbally to the local BJP MLA Sunil Rane.
When there was no response, the victim womanr gave a written complaint to the Mumbai North BJP MP Gopal Shetty. Both Rane and Shetty ignored her complaint
Finally, the victim woman approached the Borivali Police Station on Wednesday lodged a complaint with the Borivli police under section 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with an intent to outrage her modesty – in other words modesty) Indian Penal Code (IPC). “We have not made any arrest so far,” Senior Police Inspector Sudhir Kalekar said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Not surprisingly, the ruling Shiv Sena and Congress swiftly made an issue of the alleged incident and sought to “expose” the “double speak” of the BJP and demanded action against the BJP worker who has been accused of outraging the modesty of a woman on the pretext of helping her join the party.
Reacting to the registration of an FIR against a BJP worker, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar of the Shiv Sena said that she would meet the victim woman and police officers dealing with the alleged molestation incident.
“Where are all those BJP leaders now? Why are they speaking up? We are now learning that after the incident, the victim woman had approached BJP MLAs and MPs of the BJP for help But, no one helped her,” Pednekar said.
Slamming the BJP for its “dual standards”, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant said: “The victim woman had approached the BJP leaders for help. Instead of helping her, they beat her up and silenced her. This incident lays bare the BJP anti-woman outlook”
“On one hand, the BJP’s women MLAs have written a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray demanding a special session of the State Legislature to discuss Sakinaka rape and murder incident. On the other, the Borilivli police have registered an FIR in connection with a molestation that took place in the office of a woman BJP corporator. What is ironical is that after the incident, the victim woman had approached local BJP MP Gopal Shetty and party MLA Sunil Rane for help. But she did not get any help from the two elected representatives,” Sawant said.