‘Why all ministers mum on rape of minors,’ UP Cong chief slams BJP govt

Lucknow, Sep 2 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Rai on Wednesday launched a scathing attack at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government over the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl inside a moving sleeper bus in Greater Noida, questioning the alleged silence of the ruling party and its leaders over the incident.

A 16-year-old girl was gang-raped inside an empty sleeper bus by its driver and conductor in Greater Noida earlier this month, police said on Monday, adding that both accused have been arrested in connection with the case.

Speaking to the reporters, Rai said, “Today, the BJP is in power from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi, yet no minister is ready to speak. All their women ministers are sitting silent.”

“When such incidents happened during our tenure, the Congress party extended full support to the victim. Today, I believe the BJP government is completely responsible. Girls are being subjected to atrocities in Uttar Pradesh, with rape cases involving children as young as 1.5, 3 and 4 years old… The situation is terrible,” he added.

According to police, the incident took place near Pari Chowk on August 4. The survivor alleged in her complaint that the two accused sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her if she resisted. They later abandoned her near Kashmere Gate in Delhi.

The accused, identified as driver Kuldeep and conductor Sandeep, were arrested from a parking area in Timarpur on the same day.

Police seized the bus and sent it for forensic examination. Investigators also collected CCTV footage from the route taken by the bus as part of the probe. Police said the footage was being examined to establish the sequence of events.

The teenager is a resident of Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh. Police said she had left her home without informing her family after her mother reprimanded her over her studies. She was travelling to Noida Sector 63, where her cousin lives.

According to the girl’s statement to police, she mistakenly got down at Pari Chowk amid heavy rain and darkness. After realising that she had reached the wrong location, she tried to find another vehicle and eventually stopped the sleeper bus. Police said there were no passengers inside the bus at the time.

Earlier on Tuesday, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi also condemned the incident and said that Delhi-NCR has become very unsafe for women and questioned whether anyone would be held accountable for the incident.

Rahul Gandhi took to the social media platform X and said, “Delhi NCR has become so unsafe for women that a minor girl was gang-raped for 47 kilometres in a sleeper bus – from Greater Noida to Delhi. It’s astonishing that neither the entire Delhi police nor the Noida police had the slightest inkling of it.”

–IANS

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