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| India-Pakistan |
| Haryana police accused of cover-up |
| 2017-08-08 |
| [Al Jazeera] Women's rights campaigners and opposition leaders in India have accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Haryana state of putting pressure on police to protect a ruling party official's son, who was accused of attempted kidnapping and sexual assault. People on social media voiced outrage after Vikas Barala, the 23-year-old son of the BJP's state president Subhash Barala, was released on bail following a brief arrest on charges of stalking and drunk driving. Jagmati Sangwan, the head of All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) called for Subhash's resignation, claiming he had pressured police to drop charges of attempted kidnapping and sexual assault against his son. Sangwan accused the BJP leader of "political interference" in the police probe. The Haryana state is ruled by the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has so far not commented on the issue. Hundreds took part in protests across the state on Monday and burned effigies of Barala, Sangwan said. The case is at the centre of a media storm in India, where scrutiny of sexual violence has grown since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student in New Delhi. It began on Saturday when 29-year-old Varnika Kundu said she was nearly kidnapped while driving in Chandigarh, the capital of Haryana. In a widely shared Facebook post, she said two men in a car had followed her as she drove home around midnight on Friday, blocked her path and attempted to force open the doors of her car. Kundu, the daughter of a senior Haryana bureaucrat, said she was rescued by the police. The two suspects included Vikas and his friend Ashish Kumar, 27, local media reported. They were incarcerated Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! but freed within hours on bail, and face charges of stalking and drunk driving. Kundu and AIDWA want the police to press the harsher charges of attempted kidnapping and sexual assault against the suspects. "I'm also lucky, because I'm not lying raped and murdered in a ditch somewhere," Kundu wrote on her Facebook page. |
| Posted by:Fred |