New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing criticism from the opposition in Madhya Pradesh after a woman was raped on a busy footpath in Ujjain on Wednesday, in an incident that onlookers filmed instead of coming to her aid.
Police officials said they arrested one Lokesh, whom the woman named in her complaint. On Saturday (September 8), they also arrested an autorickshaw driver named Mohammad Salim for allegedly filming the incident, the Indian Express reported.
They said that while the incident took place on Wednesday on a footpath in the city’s busy Koyla Phatak intersection, onlookers filmed it but did not intervene.
“Yesterday, at around 3:30 pm, a woman came to the police station and reported that she had been raped. Immediately a woman officer was called and her story was heard and an FIR was registered after informing the senior officers,” Mishra was quoted as saying on Thursday by the Express.
Mishra said that the woman had named the accused, Lokesh, who was subsequently arrested and admitted to the crime, the newspaper reported.
“Apart from this, the statement of the woman was also recorded before the court today. In which the woman has confirmed the incident of rape before the court… A video of this incident was also made which also came to police, we have taken it as evidence,” Mishra said.
Police said that the accused Lokesh had allegedly promised to “marry her” and raped her after making her drink liquor.
On Saturday, the Express reported that police invoked Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections relating to disclosing the identity of victims of certain offences and capturing images of a woman engaging in a private act against Salim, apart from provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
PTI quoted Om Prakash Mishra, the Kotwali area’s city superintendent of police, as saying on Friday that the cops had “identified three to four suspects who shot a video of the incident and made it viral”.
All of them were at different locations, Mishra added.
The opposition has hit out at the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government, with leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi saying that the incident in Ujjain is a “blot on humanity”.
“The continuously increasing crimes against women and the attitude of the police administration towards the victim and her family is a proof of the cruelty of the system and is a matter of serious concern for the country,” he said in a statement on X.
“Propaganda-centric governments have given birth to an insensitive system to create a false image of themselves, the biggest victims of which are women.”
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that the incident showed how the country had become a “nation of mobile holding, video recording bystanders as well as social media viral content creators & outrage warriors.”
“Who will step up and involve themselves to stop a crime, too messy and so old fashioned,” she wrote on X.
Madhya Pradesh BJP chief V.D. Sharma has hit back at the Congress and said that the grand old party has “no issues” to corner the Madhya Pradesh government.
“Congress party has no issues to corner the Madhya Pradesh government and that’s why they try to give such a tone to the incident…The BJP government is the first government to introduce a law to give the death penalty to the perpetrators of these kinds of incidents…The accused has been arrested and the state government will ensure that strict action is taken against them,” he said to reporters.
Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari however said that the BJP should avoid allegations and counter-allegations and look at the NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) data on crimes against women in the state.
“Rape happened on the road in the Chief Minister’s constituency, in Ujjain a girl was roaming around the whole area soaked in blood, the police did not notice. The Jabalpur incident in which the hostel video of the sisters went viral on social media. All this is the story of Madhya Pradesh. If the citizens of the country and the state, Congress will not do this, then who will? VD Sharma should avoid allegations and counter-allegations and take cognizance of the figures and make corrections,” he said.
This article was updated on September 8 with news of Mohammad Salim’s arrest.
