Hapur rape case finds no echo in LS polls

Lucknow, May 15 (IANS) Elections have moved into the final phase, politicians are looking towards post-poll calculations and, apparently, have no time for the rape victim who allegedly set herself on fire in protest against police inaction on her complaint.

The incident has not found a place in any of the election speeches of top political leaders.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in between his election meetings, has simply ordered an inquiry into the delayed action by the police after receiving a letter from the Delhi Commission for Woman.

Congress claimed that the incident was a classic case of 'Beti darao, balatkari bachao' and slammed the ruling BJP for not providing any help to the rape victim, who is now being treated for 80 per cent burn injuries in Delhi.

Samajwadi Party spokesman Juhie Singh said: "We have always said that women are not safe under the Yogi government and the Hapur case proves it. The police apathy forced the young woman to set herself on fire and the Chief Minister dismisses the case with a simple inquiry."

The BSP spokesman refused to comment on the incident 'in view of contradictory reports'.

Mamta Singh, a woman activist, was more forthcoming when she said, "The Alwar rape case has received political attention because the victim was a Dalit and belonged to a particular vote bank.

"In this case, the victim does not belong to a particular vote bank. Moreover, elections in Hapur are over and political parties are not interested. It is a sad state of affairs."

The contradictory reports that the BSP spokesman was referring to are the statements of the victim's father who has denied having "sold off" his daughter.

Talking to reporters, the victim's father said that he had not sold her off but had got her married in 2010.

"She got divorced after seven months and in the affidavit for the second marriage, she declared her first husband 'dead'. She then ran off with another man one and a half year ago and was living with him," he said.

The father of the youth she was living with in Moradabad also told reporters: "We have tried to make him understand that it was not right to stay with a married woman like this. But when he did not heed our advice, we ended all relations with him a year ago."

The victim's father also rubbished his daughter's rape allegations. Villagers of Shyampur Jatt, to which all the alleged rapists belong, have given a memorandum to Superintendent of Police Hapur Yashveer Singh claiming that the charges are false.

Yashveer Singh said that the woman had earlier made several complaints regarding custody of her three children, dowry and rape. "But whenever the cops tried to reach her to verify the allegations, she was unavailable," he said.

Police officials claim that the allegations need investigations. "The victim and her live-in partner did not inform the police when she got burnt. It was the district hospital in Moradabad that informed us when she was admitted," said an official.