New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday questioned the “silence” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the alleged sexual assault on an Army officer’s fiancée in police custody in Odisha and other incidents of crime against women in BJP-ruled states.
The party demanded immediate dismissal of all the police officials responsible for the alleged brutality with the woman in Odisha, a judicial probe into the incident and the setting up of an Ex-Servicemen Commission on the pattern of the SC/ST Commission.
Congress leader Ajoy Kumar said that in Odisha, some men misbehaved with the daughter of an Army brigadier, who is also the fiancée of an Army captain, and when she went to a “model police station” to get a complaint lodged, she and her fiancée were brutally beaten up.
“Then a fake case is made and the victim and her companion are taken into custody. In this case, an Army officer writes a letter to a high court judge, saying ‘give us justice’.
“But Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh are silent in this entire matter,” Kumar said at a joint press conference with the chairman of the All India Congress Committee’s (AICC’s) ex-servicemen department, Colonel (retired) Rohit Chaudhry.
In Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, Army officers and their female friends were held hostage and beaten up and one of the two women was raped, he alleged.
In Rajasthan, an Army jawan was brutally beaten up at a police station, Kumar claimed and went on to cite another incident from Manipur, in which the wife of an Army jawan was allegedly disrobed.
“In Manipur, an Army jawan was kidnapped and then killed. In Odisha, a tribal girl was gang-raped and her body was found,” he said.
“Many such incidents have happened in the country but not a single word has come out of the mouths of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah,” the Congress leader said.
In Jharkhand, a woman leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Seema Patra, brutally tortured a tribal girl working in her house, he alleged.
Kumar said there are two sets of women in the country — those who live in BJP-ruled states and others — and the leaders of the saffron party only raise their voice for the latter category, while those under their rule must suffer all kinds of brutalities.
“Some time ago, President Droupadi Murmu had said ‘enough is enough’ in the wake of the Kolkata (rape and killing) incident. We are now asking, how much is ‘enough is enough’? Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Indore — we ask Modiji, when will you write an editorial in one of the major national dailies, saying ‘enough is enough’,” Kumar said.
Chaudhry said, “A brigadier’s daughter is not safe in Odisha. She is mistreated, she goes to a police station to complain, and she is brutally beaten up there too. Such acts were done with the woman that are beyond description.”
Such is the situation in BJP-ruled Odisha and this is the hooliganism of the saffron party, he alleged.
Several incidents similar to the one in Odisha have been reported from different parts of the country, Chaudhry claimed.
An Army soldier from Manipur, who gave a tough time to Pakistan, could not save his wife, he said.
“Despite all this, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are silent,” Chaudhry said. He said the Chief of Army Staff must reach out to the prime minister and tell him that “enough is enough” and all this was not acceptable.
Under the Army Act, no Army officer can be detained without any case and those responsible for such acts can be terminated immediately, the Congress leader said.
Chaudhry pointed out that the Army officer, accompanying his fiancee, who was allegedly brutalised inside the police station in Odisha, had been unlawfully kept in custody for 14 hours.
Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Congress staged protests in Odisha on Saturday, demanding justice for the woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted at a police station in Bhubaneswar.
The alleged incident took place on September 15, when an Army officer posted in West Bengal and his fiancee approached the Bharatpur police station to get a complaint of road rage lodged. They were also allegedly harassed by some local men.
However, a verbal altercation took place between the duo and some policemen, following which the Army officer and his fiancee were allegedly assaulted at the police station.
