New Delhi: Since August last year, after facing an embarrassing debacle in the general elections, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath has spoken of isolated crimes against women to pin the blame on the opposition, especially its members from the Muslim and Yadav communities. Adityanath has also famously accused the Samajwadi Party of indulging in the “Nawab brand” of politics.
The apparent slur of “Nawab,” a reference to the erstwhile Muslim rulers of Awadh, was targeted at former SP block head from Kannauj, Nawab Singh Yadav, who was arrested by police for allegedly raping a minor girl on the pretext of providing her a job.
Kannauj is a stronghold of SP.
Adityanath not only raised the Kannauj incident in his official programmes but also spoke about it in the election campaign for the 10 recently-concluded bypolls in the state. A key part of his narrative has been to paint the SP as anti-women. His party has often highlighted the accused person in a crime if he belongs to the Muslim community, a key support base of the opposition party.
Despite Adityanath’s stress on the Nawab Singh case, it is not entirely black and white.
The 15-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by Nawab Singh recently told a Kannauj court that she had given statements against him under police pressure. She told the court that Singh did not molest or rape her. Taking view of the girl’s fresh testimony, a Kannauj court on January 18 granted bail to Singh.
The 48-year-old Nawab Singh manages a private education institute in Kannauj. From 2006 to 2011 he was the elected block pramukh from Kannauj. In August last year, an FIR was lodged against him on the complaint of the 15-year-old girl who accused him of assaulting or using criminal force with the intent to disrobe her. Nawab Singh was also slapped with Sections 7 and 8 of the POCSO Act.
“What is the SP model?”
According to the FIR, the minor girl and her aunt arrived in the private college run by Nawab Singh at around 11 pm on August 11, 2024 when they were returning from Lucknow after a day trip. At the college, they met Singh. The girl alleged that he had called them to the institution with the promise that he would get her a job at a medical college. The girl alleged that when her aunt went to the washroom, Singh forcibly removed her upper garment and put his hand on her chest. She said she immediately alerted her aunt who asked her to dial 122 and call emergency police for help.
Nawab Singh was arrested and later police said that a report had confirmed that his DNA matched with the sample collected from the girl. The chargesheet was filed under much more grievous charges, including rape of a woman under 16 years, criminal conspiracy, voluntarily causing hurt and causing disappearance of evidence. The chargesheet also included Sections 17, 18, 3 and 4 (2) of the POCSO Act. The police also arrested and booked the girl’s aunt on the allegation that she tried to protect Singh by erasing evidence as part of a conspiracy, a charge she denied in court.
Following the rape case, the police also booked Singh, his brother Veerpal Yadav and the aunt for gangster activities under the stringent Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.
When the alleged rape case was first reported last year, Adityanath was quick to use it to target the SP, accusing it of sheltering those who commit crimes against women. “What is the SP model? It is the Nawab brand you recently witnessed in Kannauj. Akhilesh Yadav is standing with the rapists,” said Adityanath. He also used the incident to blunt the SP’s PDA caste strategy of mobilising backward castes, Dalits and Muslims. “They will try to divide you on caste lines. But when the safety of any daughter is under threat, they will be seen stranding with the rapists,” he said.
In the recent bypoll election in Ayodhya’s Milkipur too, Adityanath referred to the Nawab Singh case. He said that whenever there was an incident of crime, including rape, there was always “an SP hand behind it” and the party was found to be “a part of the conspiracy.”
“They love Milkipur’s Moid Khan (another SP leader jailed on rape charges) and Kannauj’s Nawab Singh Yadav, who played with the dignity of a daughter,” said Adityanath in his election rally.
Adityanath’s express focus on the crimes where the accused belong to the opposition parties stand in contrast to how he has ignored other such incidents during his tenure, especially if the accused person is linked to the ruling dispensation.
The Hathras gangrape case 2020 and the Unnao rape case involving then BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar were big blots on Adityanath’s claims of a state safe for women. The gangrape of a student inside the campus of the IIT-BHU in Varanasi by three men linked to the ruling party in 2023 and the conviction of BJP MLA Ram Dular Gond in a rape case also exposed the saffron party. In December 2024, sitting BJP MLA Harish Shakya and 16 others were booked in the case of an alleged gang rape in Budaun. In 2021, too, a BJP leader in Ballia Ranjit Maurya was booked for allegedly raping a 26-year-old woman.
Contradictions
During his bail hearing, Nawab Singh submitted in court that there were contradictions between the girl’s statement before police and what she recorded before a judicial magistrate. His lawyers said that there was no medical report confirming rape or injury. Singh said he was booked in a false case to ‘murder’ him ‘politically’..
The girl’s father was discharged as a witness by the prosecution after he did not support the prosecution story against Nawab Singh. The girl recently appeared in court along with her mother to give her testimony on the bail application of Nawab Singh. She did not oppose his bail and submitted an application and affidavit testifying that he did not molest or rape her. Her mother endorsed her statement, according to the bail order of Nawab Singh, a copy of which is with The Wire.
Special judge POCSO Act, additional sessions judge Kannauj, Alka Yadav took note of the contradictions in the victim’s statements given before police and before a magistrate. In her statement under Section 180 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which deals with examination of witnesses by police, the girl said that Nawab Singh sexually assaulted her by grabbing her chest. In her statement under Section 183 of BNSS before a magistrate, the girl said that Nawab Singh forcibly undressed her and tried to penetrate her. In the Section 183 statement, she also said that she had no idea who he was or that she was there to get a job. She said that it was her aunt who had asked her to spend the night at the college. The girl claimed that she gave the second statement under police pressure.
“It is noteworthy that the victim in her statements given in court denied that Nawab Singh committed any form of misdeed or rape against her. And after receiving information about the bail application, she appeared before the court along with her mother to present her version,” said judge Alka Yadav.
Judge Yadav said that the girl informed court that Nawab Singh did not molest or rape her.
“She gave the statement before the magistrate under the pressure of the police. She and her mother submitted an application and affidavit regarding this,” said judge Yadav, adding that even the girl’s mother denied the charges against Nawab Singh.
Since the chargesheet in the case had been submitted, there was no possibility of Nawab Singh tampering with the evidence or influencing or threatening the witnesses, ruled the court as it granted him bail.
Despite getting bail in the rape case, Yadav is still in jail under the Gangsters Act. His co-accused, the girl’s aunt, was granted bail by the Allahabad high court.
