Bhopal: The Congress on Friday attacked Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for the state’s record of rape cases.
Bolstered by National Crime Record Bureau’s 2016 report which put MP on number one spot in terms of rape cases, Congress cornered the ruling BJP in state Assembly.
Senior Congress leader Ajay Singh alleged that Chouhan had backed death sentence for the rapists of Nirbahaya in 2012 but he only remembered this five years after in 2017 when the gangrape of a 19-year-old girl was reported in Bhopal.
Speaking during a debate on adjournment motion on the Bhopal gangrape case, Singh, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, reminded Chouhan of his statement seeking death penalty in rape cases and sought to know whether he made any efforts to ensure an amendment in the law through the Centre, especially after his own party came to power in 2014.
The leader was referring to the bill approved by MP cabinet for handing death sentence to those convicted in gangrape cases. The ordinance has been tabled in House on Thursday.
“Then Home minister Umashankar Gupta had planned extensive measures to check crimes against women including installation of CCTV cameras at public places but the plan is still unfinished after five years,” he alleged, while slamming MP government for growing cases of atrocities on women.
The gangrape victim was raped thrice — first by her tormentors, then by police slackness and finally when the botched up medical report was prepared, Singh said.
Saying that MP Police was once a force to reckon with nationally, he alleged that scandalous recruitments of police through Vyapam (MPPEB) and excessive political interference in their functioning has shattered their morale.
He went on attacking the state government, further saying that an ASP accused of molesting a police woman was granted bail while the case diary takes weeks to reach the courts had it been a case involving a common victim.
Congress MLA Govind Singh slammed the state police for botching up the probe in the Bhopal gangrape case, where the civil service aspirant who was made to run from one police station to other to get a complaints registered. Apart from him, Congress MLA Arif Aqueel also alleged that people in government tried to influence the probe in the matter and this could be ascertained by verifying phone records of police officers.
Small time officers were punished in the case but why the DIG Bhopal was spared from action despite the fact he is in charge of law and order in the city, Congress MLA Shailendra Patel asked.
Retaliating to Congress assault, state home minister Bhupendra Singh claimed that MP always fared poorly in rape cases, being number one on several occasions from 1993 to 2003 when the Congress was in power. The installation of CCTV cameras is complete in 11 cities and underway in 61 cities, he added.
He also countered claims of low police morale while citing achievements like encounters of SIMI terrorists after jailbreak, arrest of terror operatives behind the r blast in Shajapur, successful handling of nine crore visitors at Simhastha 2016 which was entered in Guinness Book of World Records.
The BJP, however, did not allow adjournment motion prompting Congress MLAs to stage walk out from the House.
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