Uttar Pradesh Congress holds protest over IIT-BHU gang-rape case

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh Congress on Wednesday organised a state-wide protest over the IIT-BHU gang-rape case alleging that the official machinery was misused to "shield" the accused. In Lucknow, Congress workers protested near the party office in the afternoon raising slogans against the BJP government. Talking to PTI, Congress spokesperson Manish Hindvi alleged that the accused were identified by the student in the CCTV footage but they were subsequently sent to Madhya Pradesh for BJP's Assembly election campaign.

They were arrested two months later after much pressure, he further alleged. The party also demanded a judicial probe into the recent encounter of alleged criminal Vinod Upadhyay calling it a "well-planned murder" by the Special Task Force (STF) as he was against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. "Upadhyay had no criminal records. He was against the chief minister and cases were filed against him in the past two years and he was killed in a well-planned manner," Hindvi alleged.

Upadhyay, who was killed in an encounter with Uttar Pradesh Police's STF in the Sultanpur district, was wanted in 35 cases in different districts and carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh, according to police. He also demanded withdrawal of a case filed against the party's state president Ajay Rai in Varanasi in the gang-rape case in which he had linked the accused to the BJP. The Varanasi incident took place on the night of November 1.

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Following the incident, hundreds of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) students had held a protest on the campus and demanded that the entry of outsiders be banned. According to the complainant, she had gone out of her hostel with a friend at night. They were near the Karman Baba Temple when three men allegedly came there on a motorcycle, forcibly took her to a corner and gagged her after separating her from her friend and allegedly stripped her. They also allegedly made a video of her and clicked photos.

They let her go after about 15 minutes and took her phone number, the complainant further alleged. On the basis of the complaint, an FIR was registered under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code and under provisions of the Information Technology Act at the Lanka police station. Subsequently, the charge of gang-rape was added to the FIR, police said. Three people -- Kunal Pandey, Anand alias Abhishek Chauhan and Saksham Patel -- were arrested in the case on Dec 31.