After Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s remark on death penalties and rape cases – while speaking of the December 16, 2012 gangrape case – drew huge criticism, his aide on Sunday shared data to back up the statement. Alleging that Gehlot’s comment was “distorted” by the “BJP IT cell”, Shashikant Sharma, OSD (officer on special duty) to the chief minister, cited a report to back up the Congress leader’s remark.
At an event last week, Gehlot was sharpening his attack on the central government when he also spoke about rape cases. “Crime cases are on an upward trend in the country and in the state, whether communal or otherwise.”
“Ever since death penalty was introduced after the Nirbhaya incident, there has been a surge in killings of the victims. The accused, trying to eliminate witness and evidence in the case, kills the victim after the sexual assault. There has been a surge in such cases in the country, I have seen,” Gehlot can be heard saying in a video that has been widely shared on social media. The Nirbhaya incident -gangrape of a 23-year-old paramedic student in a moving bus on December 16, 2012 in Delhi – had led to massive outrage and calls for stricter laws in cases of sexual assault. Four convicts in the case were hanged to death in March 2020 after an arduous legal battle by the family.
In a tweet, Sharma on Sunday shared the Rajasthan chief minister’s video and wrote in Hindi: “Ashok Gehlot ji had given a statement on rising unemployment, inflation and increasing crimes, which has been presented in a distorted manner by the BJP IT cell. The truth is in this video of the Chief Minister’s statement.”
Sharing a newspaper report, he further said that similar observations have been previously made by cops. “Data backs up this unfortunate trend,” Sharma said amid the outrage.
On Sunday, Gehlot also stood by his remark. . “I only spoke the truth. Whenever a rapist rapes a child, they then kill them for the fear of being identified… So many deaths have never happened before,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The clip shared by Sharma was also earlier posted on Twitter by Delhi Commission of Women’s Swati Maliwal who had lashed out at the Rajasthan chief minister. “ We struggled a lot to bring the death penalty law. The job of politician is to ensure women’s safety. He should not speak the language of rapists.”
Among others who had hit out at the Congress leader were union minister Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. “In the last three years, Rajasthan has become the centre for atrocities against young innocent girls. Nothing can be more unfortunate that the issue is being twisted by making controversial statements to hide their failures,” said Shekhawat.
Deputy leader of opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly Rajendra Rathore said Gehlot’s statement is “unfortunate and shameful”.
Asha Devi, mother of the student who waged the Nirbhaya case battle, also said the comment was uncalled for. “Even, before the provision came, girls were murdered. This shows their (CM Gehlot) mentality of supporting culprits while they don’t have sympathy for victims. The law isn’t bad, people’s mentality is. He must apologise and should give his resignation,” she told ANI.
(With inputs from ANI, PTI)
