The victim identified the accused days after the incident, but it took two months to arrest them. Many believe that this inordinate delay was due to their association with the ruling BJP and proximity with several ministers and leaders.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Three persons arrested for the alleged gangrape of a 20-year-old student at the campus of IIT-BHU in Varanasi are members of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s IT Cell and their photos with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders have gone viral on social media.
The accused Saksham Patel, Kunal Pandey and Anand alias Abishek Chouhan were arrested on Saturday two months after the November 1 incident. They allegedly raped the student and recorded her naked video. Following the incident, the university had witnessed massive protests demanding the arrest of the culprits.
Based on the complaint filed by the victim on November 2, local police registered an FIR under sections 354B (use of criminal force on a woman with intent to disrobe), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and 66E of the IT Act. Sections 376 (D) (gangrape) and 509 (outraging a woman’s modesty) were added after the student’s statement was recorded before a magistrate on November 8.
Social media is inundated with the photographs of the arrested persons with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP national president J.P. Nadda, UP ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya, Swtantra Dev Singh, BJP’s national IT Cell head Amit Malviya, Dhirendra Shashtri and other leaders. Saksham Patel’s photo in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) uniform also went viral.
Now, several pictures of two of the accused, Patel and Pandey, with senior BJP leaders have been deleted from X (formerly Twitter) platform. This has raised questions on how and on whose orders these posts have been deleted.
According to influential Hindi daily Dainik Bhashkar, after the rape incident the accused even campaigned for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh. The victim identified the accused days after the incident, but it took two months to arrest them. Many believe that this inordinate delay was due to their association with the ruling BJP and proximity with several ministers and leaders.
The accused reportedly were active on social media before getting arrested. Patel’s last post talks about Prime Minister Modi’s guarantees. He also peddled the ‘Love Jihad’ theory through his social media handle.
The association of these accused with the BJP IT Cell and their photos with the people in power has drawn massive backlash on social media.
Journalist Rohini Singh said: “IT Cell hooligans who harass women on social media are now raping women in real life. Not surprising to see such criminality from these trolls. Sickening”.
Tagging Uttar Pradesh chief minister, filmmaker Vinod Kapri said: “Now @myogiadityanath will not tolerate all this at all. All accused’s house will be bulldozed. And when these people try to escape, will they be shot in the leg in an encounter? Isn’t it Chief Minister?”
Some social media users also pointed out that news anchors who are friendly with the BJP are not discussing the issue at their prime time shows.
“You ignored to do a prime time debate when the incident happened in November. You all ignored when there were several protests by IIT-BHU students after the incidents. You all ignored when there were FIRs filed against the protesting students. Now that the three accused are arrested, can India expect a prime time debate on this? Or as usual, will this be ignored because all the three accused are associated with the ruling party BJP?,” posted fact-checker Mohammed Zubair while tagging several news anchors.
