New Delhi, January 14: Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi, accused of raping a 17-year-old Dalit was arrested by Banda police on Thursday afternoon. He was reportedly going to a court in Banda when he was arrested.
However, the MLA has vowed to take revenge against his opponents after he comes out of jail. Dwivedi claims that he is the victim of a political conspiracy.The arrest comes more than a month after the case came out in the open raising questions over why the Mayawati government took so long to act against the MLA.
But clamour grows for the release of the rape victim, who is still behind the bars on charges of theft. Child rights activists say the girl is unsafe and the case be shifted out of Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking to Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Dr Shanta Sinha said that the government as well as the police is violating the juvenile justice act. She said, “She is a minor child and no where in the law that it is said that a child should be jailed.
The child should actually need care and protection. She should have been produced before the child welfare committee and they should have registered the cases under the juvenile justice act and impounded juvenile justice Section 23 on the employer.”
Lawyer Aparna Bhat said that the child cannot get justice in Uttar Pradesh and the case should be transferred out of the state.
—Agencies