With seven more rape cases reported during the last 24 hours from different parts of Uttar Pradesh, the Akhilesh Government came under all-round attack on Monday as the Opposition parties stepped up their campaign against the Samajwadi Party regime and the Union Home Ministry too swung into action.
While activists of BJP’s women wing held a march and tried to gherao the Chief Minister's Office, the Union Home Ministry questioned the State Government why a case under the SC/ST Act was not slapped against the accused in the Badaun gang-rape-cum murder case.
A rattled Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav met the Governor and informed him about the action taken by his Government to provide safety to women. Akhilesh has asked DGP Al Banerjee to go to Katra village in Badaun to have first-hand information about the incident and the security available for the family members of the victims.
Close on the heels of removing Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani, Akhilesh gave marching orders to the Principal Secretary, Home, AK Gupta, on Monday evening. Gupta was reportedly shunted out as he failed to put a check on deteriorating law & order situation in the State.
However, nothing seemed to work for the Akhilesh Government as seven more rape cases were reported on Monday. In Bareilly, a 22-year-old girl was gang-raped before being murdered by the accused. The criminals even burnt her face with acid to conceal her identity. The burnt body of the girl was recovered from a field in Aithpura village in Bahedi locality of Bareilly on Saturday and the matter was reported on Monday.
The police suspected that the victim was gang-raped before being strangled to death. Reports also said that some acid was found in her stomach during autopsy pointing that she might have been forced to consume it. Bareilly SSP J Ravindra Gaur said there was a possibility that the victim hailed from Uttarakhand, and therefore a team has been dispatched there for investigation.
In Mathura, a 32-year-old woman, hailing from Radhapuram Colony, lodged a case at the Kotwali police station alleging that one Mahatab Singh, manager of Draupadi Devi Inter College in Pali Dogra locality, lured her to provide job but raped her. She claimed that the accused took her to a hotel where he, along with two of his accomplices, raped her.
In Gorakhpur, a 16-year-old girl, residing in Bohwar hamlet of Chagha, was gang-raped by three persons when she went to field to attend nature’s call on Sunday evening. In another incident reported from Bagpat, a 22-year-old girl, hailing from Patti Chudhran locality of Badaut, was gang-raped at gunpoint.
A case was registered but no one was arrested till Monday. In Muzaffarnagar, two sisters have been harassed by three men at Miranpur locality. The accused even fired at one girl when she resisted the rape attempt.
In another case also reported from Muzaffarnagar, a youth, identified as Balu, allegedly attempted to rape a woman priest in a Shiva temple at Muradpura village on Sunday. The victim was seriously injured when she tried to resist the rape bid, local police claimed. Hearing the noise, locals reached the temple and thrashed the accused before handing him over to the police. In another incident, a pregnant woman was gang-raped by four youth in Nai Mandi area of Muzaffarnagar district.
Four youth barged into the house of the woman and assaulted her. They also thrashed her husband and brother-in-law for raising objection. In a similar incident, police arrested three people, who raped a woman in Basai Mohammadpur area.
In Meerut, a 10-year-old girl gang-rape victim was allegedly abducted from Ganganagar on Sunday. In yet another case at Shamli, a woman was abducted, threatened and sexually assaulted by four youths in Kairana locality. Police have lodged a case against Mehboob, Mobin, Munawar and Noor Mohammad and started a search for them. In Chitrakoot, a man killed the grandmother of a girl after she resisted his rape attempt in Shivrampur area.
To mount pressure on the State Government, activists of BJP's women wing on Monday organised a protest march and tried to gherao the Chief Minister's Office. The protest was scheduled in the wake of the Badaun gang-rape and murder case.
Women wing activists assembled at the BJP office in front of Vidhan Bhavan and began a march towards the CM's office at lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan. The protesters, led by party State unit president laxmi Kant Bajpai, were, however, stopped by police before they could reach lal Bahadur Shastri Bhavan.
A scuffle between police and BJP Mohila Morcha activists broke out when the latter tried to force their way towards the CM's Office. Police also used water cannons to disperse the protesters.
The BJP activists then sat on a dharna. They also alleged that police manhandled their workers in which many of them sustained injuries.Meanwhile Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan met the families of the two gang-rape-cum-murder victims in Badaun and assured them that he would take up their demands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Slamming the Akhilesh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh, he questioned why the Chief Minister had failed to turn up at the village and visit the victims' families. He also wondered whether this pointed to some "collusion" between the State Government and the accused. Paswan was accompanied by his son Chirag Paswan, who has been elected to lok Sabha and is the party's parliamentary board.