Bhubaneswar: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former Army chief VK Singh and several others on Friday reacted angrily to the alleged torture of an army man and “sexual assault” of his fiancée inside a police station in Odisha.
They slammed the state’s BJP government over the incident, while Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said his government will take stringent action against the culprits.
This “heinous incident” is a shame on humanity, said Rahul Gandhi, with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stating that the entire country is “shocked” over what had happened in the Bharatpur police station.
Former Chief of the Army Staff VK Singh described it as “shameful and horrendous”.
The Odisha Police Crime Branch registered a case against five police personnel, including the inspector in charge of Bharatpur police station, who were allegedly involved in the assault. They have already been suspended after the incident became public on Wednesday.
Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X: “The horrific incident that happened in Odisha has raised serious questions on the law and order situation in the country… Under the BJP government, crimes against women have become completely uncontrolled and unbridled.”
Wondering when injustice thrives and finds shelter within the government system itself, then from whom the common citizen would look for help, he demanded the strictest punishment for all the culprits.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said: “The entire country is shocked by the way the police in Odisha committed brutality and sexual violence against the fiancée of an army officer who had gone to the police to seek help”.
She cited another instance of Ayodhya in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress leader alleged that BJP governments across the country are working on the policy of turning the police “from protectors to predators”.
She also claimed that the “criminal attitude of the police towards crimes against women actually flourishes by getting protection from those in power.”
In a post on X, Singh demanded that the chief minister take immediate action against the police personnel and all who are trying to shield “the criminals in police uniform”
He also urged all to listen to what the affected woman, fiancée of the army officer and daughter of a retired army officer.
The woman, who was arrested and released on bail on Thursday for allegedly misbehaving with the police, claimed that she was sexually harassed after being taken into custody.
“I don’t know what happened, they put him (army officer) in the lock-up. When I raised the voice that they cannot put an Army officer in custody as it is unlawful, two women officers started physically assaulting me,” she alleged on Thursday.
The woman said she tried to fight back and bit on the hand of a policewoman when she tried to get hold of her neck. The police personnel then put her in a room and tied her hands and legs, she alleged.
“Soon after, a male officer came and kicked on my breasts several times. He lowered down my pants and his as well. Showing his private part, he asked me how much time I want to remain silent,” the woman alleged.
Several other retired army officers also criticized the Odisha government over the issue in social media posts.
The woman’s father, a retired Brigadier, demanded the arrest and dismissal of the cops for taking the law into their hands while the National Commission for Women (NCW), which took suo motu cognisance of the incident, sought an action taken report from the state DGP.
Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, who is on a tour to his home district Keonjhar to celebrate 100 days of his government, said that his dispensation would not hesitate to take strong action against the culprits.
Deputy CM Pravati Parida, who is in charge of the Women and Child Development (WCD) department, met the woman at AIIMS Bhubaneswar where she is being treated.
BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik condemned the incident as “shocking” and demanded a judicial probe into the matter.
Meanwhile, Odisha Congress MLA Sofia Firdous, who met the victim woman at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, also condemned the Bharatpur police station incident.
“It is absolutely reprehensible to imprison an army officer and torture his fiancée. As a woman, I can understand very well the pain in her mind. My demand to the government is that the guilty should be punished severely,” she said.
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