New Delhi: The Congress on Friday turned its guns on the Rajasthan govt over its handling of a gang rape case involving a 15-year-old Dalit girl from Ajmer, alleging that the police had brazenly shielded two of the three accused and left the survivor’s family without protection even after a near-fatal axe attack on its members on the eve of her court deposition.
Rajendra Pal Gautam, Chairman of the SC Department of the All India Congress Committee, said that the incident exposed a pattern of institutional complicity in atrocity cases across BJP-governed states.
According to Gautam, the girl was raped in July 2024 at a dairy in Ajmer, where she had gone to buy milk. She was threatened into silence by her assailants and only came forward after she became pregnant. A zero FIR was registered in Delhi before the case was transferred to Ajmer. Though the survivor recorded her statement before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC, naming all three accused, the police arrested only one and released the remaining two after summoning them to a police station. “Eight months passed without arrest,” he said.
The situation, Gautam said, turned violent on March 16, a day before the survivor was scheduled to testify before the trial court. Relatives of the accused descended on the family’s home, demanding withdrawal of the case. When the family refused, the survivor’s father, uncle and aunt were attacked with axes and left for dead. Despite this, the Rajasthan govt has provided no police protection to the family to date, he said. mpost