New Delhi: After a rally was held in support of the four “upper-caste Hindu men who gang-raped and then murdered” a young woman in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh state by a Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader, another leader of the saffron party has come out to say that the victim was an ‘awaara‘ (wayward), thereby trying to malign the deceased’s character.
Ranjeet Bahadur Srivastava, a BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki, claimed that the 19-year-old woman was “having an affair” with the accused and called him to the millet field where she was found on September 14, according to a report published by a Delhi-based web portal TheWire.
In a video that he released on his Facebook page, he says in Hindi that the accused and the victim were having an affair. “This news is already out on social media and news channels. She must have gotten caught,” he said, according to a translation by India Today.
The BJP leader also claimed that the deceased young woman was killed by her family because they discovered she had an “affair” with the accused.
“Such girls are found dead in only some places. They will be found dead in sugarcane, corn and millet fields or in bushes, gutters or forests. Why are they never found dead in paddy or wheat fields?”
Srivastava also defended the four accused, saying they should be released until a charge sheet is filed in the case. “I can say with guarantee these boys are innocent. If they are not released in time, they will keep facing mental harassment. Who will return their lost youth? Will the government give them compensation?” the Barabanki leader said, according to India Today.
He falsely claimed that the victim’s family raised allegations of rape only after leaders of the Congress visited her repeatedly.
Taking note of the BJP leader’s comments, National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma said on Twitter; “He is not fit to be called the leader of any party. He is showing his primitive and sick mindset and I am going to send a notice to him.”
Priorly, UP Police had claimed that an FSL report had shown that the woman was not raped, even though the family of the deceased has come out to publicly insisted that she was attacked and assaulted by four Thakur men of the village, the names of whom have been mentioned by the deceased in her dying declaration.
Srivastava, who has 44 cases registered against him, has a history of making communal, predominantly anti-muslim statements.
Before the 2019 general elections, he had asked people to vote for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “destroy the breed of Muslims”.
In July 2019, he claimed that cows should be “rescued” from Muslims who are rearing them.
“When we consider girls from our homes going to their homes as ‘love jihad’, shouldn’t we consider ‘gau mata‘ going to their homes ‘love jihad’ too? This is love jihad. Cows should be taken back from them at any cost,” he had said.
Free Press Kashmir is now on Telegram. Click here to Join.
FPK Android App for 2G. Click here to Download.
