Lucknow: Opposition parties on Saturday demanded
immediate suspension of Banda SP Anil Das who, they alleged,
played a role in threatening the 17-year-old rape victim, and
charged the Mayawati government with shielding him.
They claimed there was sufficient evidence of the SP`s
role in threatening and intimidating the victim by exerting
pressure on her and justice would not be done till he is
suspended.
"Though junior police officials and the jailor have been
suspended, the official who was directing them to intimidate
the victim for saving his political boss is so far appearing
to be coming out of the case scot free," Congress spokesman
Subodh Srivasatava told PTI.
He alleged that the state government had shown similar
attitude in the case of 12-year-old Divya, a student in Kanpur
who died after being sexually assaulted, by saving DIG Prem
Prakash.
Srivastava said continuance of the police chief in the
district was not good for the security of the girl who faced a
threat from supporters of MLA Purshottam Naresh Dwivedi who
has made clear his intention of taking revenge from his
detractors.
Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary alleged that
the government did not want to offend senior police officials
and wanted to take credit by punishing junior level officials.
"Perhaps, these senior level officials are in the know
of secrets of this government and any punishment could become
counter productive," Chaudhary said.
BJP spokesman Vijay Pathak said even if junior level
officials of the district were involved in threatening the
victim, senior officials like the district magistrate and
superintendent of police cannot shun their responsibility.
He said anger in the local people was growing over the
government`s apathetic attitude and the SP should have been
suspended earlier itself.
The SP visited the jail against the rules and stayed
there for over five hours continuously threatening the girl,
Pathak said.
The Opposition leaders said it was strange that the
CB-CID report on the case had not commented on the SP as there
were evidences of his visit to the jail against the rules and
intimidating the victim for withdrawing charges against the
MLA.
They said now that the Supreme Court was looking into the
case, the state government would not succeed in saving the
high and mighty who were involved in shielding the culprit.
PTI
