New Delhi: Life has come full circle for Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Purushottam Dwivedi and his associates, accused of raping a minor Dalit girl who worked for the lawmaker.
In a largely conservative society where crimes against women go underreported and often the victim is blamed for inviting the assault, the rape of a 17-year-old servant girl would have gone unnoticed had it not been for a dramatic chain of events that unfolded soon after the allegations of rape emerged.
Assault
The girl from the backward community began working for Dwivedi as a domestic servant about a month ago.
The girl said in court she was raped on December 10-11 at the legislator’s residence. She escaped from the MLA's house on December 12 when he attempted to rape her for the third time. The girl was arrested on the same day on theft charges.
She told her brother about the incident when she was produced before the court on December 24 on theft charges. The girl levelled the rape charge before the court on January 10 and it ordered immediate action.
The CB-CID submitted a preliminary report and subsequently the state government on Thursday ordered arrest of the MLA and an FIR was lodged against him.
Abscond
However, The MLA went on the run soon after an arrest warrant was issued in connection with the alleged rape.
The 48-year-old MLA, who represents the Naraini seat in Uttar Pradesh Assembly, denied the charges saying he is diabetic and impotent and hence incapable of rape.
Congress leaders in Banda, UP, claimed the MLA had been camping in Lucknow for the past two days meeting his BSP bosses when the state officials were making the announcement that he would be arrested soon. He went into hiding soon after that.
Arrest
Authorities ordered his arrest after the state's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) submitted a report confirming the crime.
Dwivedi was arrested by Banda police on Thursday afternoon. He was reportedly going to a court in Banda when he was arrested.
Avenge
The MLA has vowed to take revenge against his opponents after he comes out of jail. Dwivedi claimed that he is the victim of a political conspiracy and that the charges were "stage managed".
"Un partiyon se badla liya jayega jinhone hame iss case mein phansaya hai" (Revenge will be taken against the parties which have got me framed in the fake case), the BSP MLA told reporters before entering the Banda district jail last night.
Role of Mayawati's government questioned
The arrest comes more than a month after the case came out in the open raising questions over why the Mayawati government took so long to act against the MLA.
Congress spokesman Subodh Srivastava alleged that Dwivedi was being shielded by the Mayawati government and it was only because of pressure from visits by the delegations from Delhi including the National Commission for Women that the state government was forced to arrest the legislator.
His two aides -- Rajendra Shukla and Surendra Neta -- were arrested in Banda district on Thursday following an FIR against them and were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by a Banda court. The third accused Ravan Garg is still absconding.
Victim still in jail
The victim was arrested on charges of theft on complaint from the lawmaker. She says she is innocent and campaigners say the charges were trumped up. The Samajwadi Party has demanded that action be taken against the officials of Banda who tried their best to intimidate the rape victim to change her statement.
The Uttar Pradesh government maintained that the minor girl who is still in prison had stolen a mobile phone and cash from the MLA's house.
India's women and child development ministry has called for an investigation by the federal investigative agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
But clamour grows for the release of the rape victim, who is still behind the bars on charges of theft. Child rights activists say the girl is unsafe and the case be shifted out of Uttar Pradesh.
Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Dr Shanta Sinha said that the government as well as the police is violating the juvenile justice act.
She said, "She is a minor child and no where in the law that it is said that a child should be jailed. The child should actually need care and protection. She should have been produced before the child welfare committee and they should have registered the cases under the juvenile justice act and impounded juvenile justice Section 23 on the employer."
But some questions still remain. Why is the girl still in jail? Will the BSP expel the MLA? And why did it take as long as 20 days to order his arrest?
A strong statement from the Uttar Pradesh govt will go a long way towards reassuring the community that justice will not be denied.
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