Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly Vijay Wadettiwar said on Tuesday that the sexual abuse of two girls in Maharashtra’s Badlapur is “bigger than” the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar College and Hospital in Kolkata.
“Maharashtra has left UP [Uttar Pradesh] behind in crime against women. The law and order has collapsed in the state. Allegations were levelled against the West Bengal government after an assault on doctor... this incident in Maharashtra is bigger than that. No one will support such incident (Kolkata). The accused should be hanged. Take hearings daily, no other thing is important,” the Congress leader said in the video message.
‘Badlapur victim’s family made to wait for 11 hours’
He also alleged the family of a girl who was sexually abused at a school in Maharashtra’s Badlapur were made to wait for 11 hours to file their complaint.
“A senior woman police official kept the victim’s family waiting for 11 hours before filing FIR as the school was associated with those in power today,” Wadettiwar said in a video message posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.
“This police officer is fully responsible,” Wadettiwar added. He also demanded to suspend the woman police officer for “neglecting this matter”.
बदलापूर मध्ये साडे तीन वर्षाच्या लहान मुलीवर झालेली अत्याचाराची घटना ही महाराष्ट्राला शरमेनं मान खाली घालायला लावणारी आहे. या गंभीर प्रकरणाबाबत पोलिस आयुक्त डुंबरे यांच्याशी चर्चा करून माहिती घेतली आहे.
पीडित मुलींच्या पालकांची तक्रार न घेता त्यांना अकरा तास पोलिस स्थानकात… pic.twitter.com/d0e23Gqzho
— Vijay Wadettiwar (@VijayWadettiwar) August 20, 2024
Wadettiwar added that atrocities are committed against a three-and-half years old girl and a four-year-old girl, and at the police station, they (parents) are made to wait for 11 hours when they seek to file a complaint.
“Is there any sensitivity left? I spoke to the police commissioner and told him that the woman police officer responsible for this delay must be suspended immediately,” he added.
#WATCH | Chandrapur | On Badlapur incident, LoP Maharashtra Vijay Wadettiwar says, “Mahrashtra should be ashamed that such an incident has occurred in the state. Law and order situation in the state is bad. We demand that the matter should be fast-tracked and within 3 months the… pic.twitter.com/Z39KsrlOuP
— ANI (@ANI) August 20, 2024
“The trial of the case should be completed within three months and the accused should be hanged,” the leader of opposition demanded.
Taking a swipe at the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government’s much-advertised Ladki Bahin scheme for women, he asked why the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Ministers were silent about the present case.
What are Badlapur and Kolkata cases?
Two kindergarten girls at a school in Badlapur in Maharashtra’s Thane district were allegedly assaulted by an attendant of the school last week. As per the complaint, he abused the girls in the toilet of the school, an official told news agency PTI.
The school management suspended the principal, a class teacher, and a woman attendant, over the incident. The state government on Tuesday ordered the suspension of three police officials, including a senior police inspector, for alleged dereliction of duty in probing the sexual abuse of the two girls.
Meanwhile, in West Bengal’s Kolkata, the rape and murder of the trainee doctor sparked widespread outrage and protests across various cities, with calls for justice and punishment for the accused. On August 9, 2024, a 31-year-old postgraduate doctor at RG Kar Medical College Hospital, Kolkata who was on a 36-hour duty shift was allegedly raped and murdered inside the seminar room of the hospital.