Bhubaneswar: Women’s and students’ wings of opposition BJP and Congress Wednesday took out rallies here in protest against the gangrape of a girl in Puri allegedly by two persons including a former policeman.
Members of the BJP Mahila Morcha courted arrest while marching towards the Naveen Niwas, the chief minister’s residence here, demanding stringent action against all the culprits who were involved in raping the girl.
“We demand the resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who holds the Home portfolio. As the Home Minister, it is his duty to ensure the safety of women,” said Morcha president Prabhati Parida.
Mahila Morcha activists had a scuffle with women police personnel who stopped their rally. Many of them were taken to custody and released later, the police said.
Members of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the students’ wing of the Congress, hurled tomatoes at the residence of Minister of State for Home DS Mishra in Unit-4 area here during their rally.
The police detained several student activists.
“(DS) Mishra remained silent over the gangrape. He neither met the victim nor opened his mouth on the incident. Instead, he is busy with party works. We demand the resignations of his as well as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik,” NSUI general secretary Rajeeb Pattanaik said.
Demanding stringent action against the culprits, workers of the Congress’s student body warned that they will hurl eggs at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik if it is not done.
The girl was allegedly gang-raped Monday by two persons, including Jitendra Sethi who is a dismissed constable, inside a quarter that was allotted to his wife, a policewoman. The two were arrested Tuesday.
The police said efforts are on to file charge sheet in the case within 20 days and four teams have been formed to trace the two other accused who are at large.
Sethi, the arrested police constable, had offered the girl a lift in his car showing a police identity card while she was waiting for a bus. There were four persons in that car and two of them raped her after taking her to the temple town.
(PTI)