Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Swarnim Chaturvedi addressing party workers at a demonstration outside the Enforcement Directorate’s office in Jaipur on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The Opposition Congress in Rajasthan on Thursday refuted the Bharatiya Janata Party’s charge that its government in the State had protected the convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in the 1992 Ajmer sex scandal case, in which more than 100 girls in the city were victimised. The BJP has alleged that three of the convicts were previously linked to Congress.
Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Swarnim Chaturvedi said here that those involved in the sex racket were punished by the POCSO Special Court after their trial, which could not be influenced by any government or a political party. “The due process of law has been followed in the conviction of rapists. The prosecution presented its case in the court irrespective of any party being in power,” Mr. Chaturvedi said.
Mr. Chaturvedi, who is also the PCC spokesperson, said some of the convicts were earlier members of the party, but there was no question of any Congress leader trying to protect them. “This culture is prevalent in the BJP, which welcomes the rapists with garlands when they come out of jail,” he said.
He said the BJP had “no moral right” to cast aspersions on the Congress when its own leaders, including former MPs and MLAs, were facing charges and undergoing trial in the rape cases in different courts of several States.
The Congress leader challenged BJP’s national spokesperson Prem Shukla to prove his allegation that the previous Congress governments had worked for giving clean chit to the criminals belonging to a particular religion. “Both the Congress and the BJP have been in power in Rajasthan since 1992 when the scandal was exposed. Where was the scope for giving clean chit to anyone?” Mr. Chaturvedi said.
