New Delhi:
Congress president Rahul Gandhi will on Wednesday meet the 19-year-old woman who was gang-raped in Rajasthan's Alwar last month. He will be accompanied by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, AICC general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan Avinash Pande and Deputy Chief Minister and Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Sachin Pilot. From there, the Congress chief will be flying to Punjab for campaigning ahead of the last phase of the Lok Sabha Election on May 19, according to Congress functionaries.
The horrifying incident took place on April 26, when the woman was traveling with her husband on a motorcycle on the Alwar-Thanagazi highway. The accused stopped them and took them to an isolated place off the road. They allegedly beat the husband and raped her in front of him, threatening them of dire consequences. They had also filmed the whole incident and circulated the video on social media.
Her husband claimed that he had approached Rajasthan police on April 30 after the incident, but an FIR was filed on May 7. He had alleged that the police did not take action saying that they were busy with elections. Police have arrested all six accused, including the one who filmed the incident.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar demanded the resignation of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for the "delay" in the initiation of action in the case, which, he alleged, was done for political gains during the Lok Sabha elections.
At a press conference, Javadekar said, "Congress president Rahul Gandhi is said to start touring the state in the coming days. He should ask Gehlot to resign as chief minister. Gehlot is also the state's home minister and it is not possible that he was not informed about such a heinous crime. The case was kept under wraps for six days for political gains."
Javadekar, who is also the BJP's state election in-charge, said BSP chief Mayawati supports the Congress government in Rajasthan and she remained "quiet" on atrocities against people belonging to SC and ST communities.?
The BSP did not withdraw support to the Congress government in the state and now people of the country will punish her in the polls, he said.
The Union minister also accused the Rajasthan government of "tweaking historical facts" in the school textbooks.
