The ’double engine’ government of the JDU-BJP in Bihar is responsible for the rise in crimes, the AIMC chief said
NEW DELHI — The country was no longer safe for women, All India Mahila Congress (AIMC) president Ms Alka Lamba said here on Monday. To buttress her point, she cited the alarmingly disturbing figures from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) about heinous crimes against women across the country, with most of the culprits going scot-free.
Addressing a press conference here along with another party leader, Ms Garima Mehra, at the AICC headquarters, Ms Lamba also blamed Bihar’s JDU-BJP government for the delay in treatment of the nine-year old Muzaffarpur rape victim, who died for want of proper medical treatment.
She said that the victim could not be shifted to Patna in time as her transfer was delayed due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state on the same day. She disclosed that the authorities waited for the prime minister to leave before moving the victim, who was already in a critical condition.
Ms Lamba asserted that the “double engine” government of the JDU-BJP in Bihar was responsible for the rise in incidents of crime as the criminals were being shielded, protected and patronised. She cited several incidents of rapes in Bihar during the last two years of the JDU-BJP rule.
She also referred to the rising number of acquittals of the accused due to shoddy investigations and possible political patronage.
Giving details, while citing the NCRB data for three years from 2020 to 2022, Alka Lamba disclosed that an overwhelming majority of the culprits were acquitted, as the prosecution did not investigate the cases properly.
She said, out of 18,517 trials, only 5,067 resulted in convictions, while 12,086 accused were acquitted. Similarly, in 2021, out of 11,783, only 3,368 were convicted, while 7,745 were acquitted. In 2020, there were 9,713 cases, only 3,814 led to convictions and 5,403 were acquitted.
In the same context, Ms Garima Mehra, a senior Congress leader from Uttarakhand, said that while the party welcomed the conviction and sentencing of the guilty in the Ankita Bhandari murder case, the outcome could have been stronger. She added that had the prosecution done its job properly, the guilty could have been awarded a death sentence as demanded by the parents of the victim.
She stated that right from the day of the crime, when Ankita was found dead in a resort owned by a senior BJP leader and former minister, Vinod Arya, the proofs and evidence were systematically destroyed.
She disclosed that the portion of the resort where Ankita’s room was located was demolished using bulldozers on the orders of the chief minister. She asserted that this was a clear attempt to destroy the evidence. Similarly, she added, the bedding Ankita used was found in the swimming pool, seemingly to wash away any possible evidence.
