"Guarantee of Ashok Gehlot and Congress": BJP's Shehzad Poonawala attacks Rajasthan govt over Dausa rape

New Delhi [India], November 11 : Launching a blistering attack on the Congress government in Rajasthan after a police sub-inspector was arrested for raping a minor girl in Dausa district, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala on Saturday said the only guarantee of the ruling party is the continued crimes against women in the state.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in the national capital, the BJP spokesman said, "A shocking incident of a four-year-old girl raped by an officer of Rajasthan Police has come to light today. Instead of promptly acting against the accused officer, the state police and administration tried to cast an institutional safety net around him. The accused wasn't suspended and neither was any action taken against two other police officers, who are alleged to have destroyed evidence in the matter. Did the Rajasthan police and administration act immediately against the officer after the incident came to light?"
According to ASP Dausa, Bajrang Singh, the accused sub-inspector was identified as Bhupendra.
A case was registered in the matter and the accused officer was arrested, the police informed earlier on Saturday.
The incident, which is the latest in a series of sexual crimes in Rajasthan, drew political spotlight just days before the state goes to polls on November 25.
"I visited Rajasthan a few days ago and was told that more than 15,000 (sexual) harassment cases have been reported (over the last five years of the Congress government). Rajasthan alone accounts for 22 per cent of such cases across the country. The state now tops the country in incidents of rape. This is the guarantee of Ashok Gehlot and the Congress. Are they guaranteeing the state more rapes and harassment if they come to power?" the BJP leader said.
Accusing the Ashok Gehlot government of shielding criminals and rapists, Poonawala added, "The Gehlot government and the ruling party are actively shielding rapists and criminals. I would like to ask Priyanka Gandhi today: Will you keep visiting Rajasthan as a political tourist or would you visit the victims of rape and their families? She should at least listen to voices from within the Congress. Divya Maderna (Congress MLA from Osian constituency) says that even she doesn't feel safe in Rajasthan."
The Dausa incident sparked fury on the streets as a large number of locals gathered outside the Rahuwas police station in the Lalsot area, chanting slogans against the Rajasthan government and state police.
Earlier, on Friday, BJP leader Kirodi Lal Meena reached the police station in the Lalsot area even as locals erupted in protest.
Meena posted from his official handle on X, "There is massive public anger over the rape of a 7-year-old Dalit girl by a police officer in Lalsot. I have reached the spot to help the victim and her kin get justice. The state police, which has turned autocratic under the incompetent Gehlot government, is desisting from committing such atrocities on women even when the elections and around the corner."