Mass rape charge against relatives of BSP minister

LUCKNOW: The Mayawati government faced its first major embarrassment on Friday with the opposition slapping a mass rape charge against the kin of a Brahmin minister. Though the government has denied the charges, an SP has been suspended, a police inspector dismissed from service and a high-level inquiry ordered into the incident.

“This is a government which has been formed with support from the upper castes, especially the Brahmins…but that does not mean that a Brahmin minister can get away with rape of innocent women,” said senior Samajwadi Party(SP) leader Azam Khan in the Assembly. He also alleged that several women had been disrobed, paraded naked and beaten up by the miscreants.

The charges rocked the Assembly as Azam Khan alleged that Alok Misra and Ashok Misra, brothers of minister of state for ayurvedic education, Daddan Misra, along with their accomplices had raped at least half a dozen women in Dhannideeh village of Sravasti district in eastern UP on Wednesday last.

The SP leader said that the assailants damaged property and did not even spare children. “The police did not even lodge an FIR… this is the real face of the BSP government,” he said.

Legislative affairs Minister Lalji Verma later told reporters that the charges related to mass rape were politically motivated and untrue. However, action had been ordered against the police officials for dereliction of duty with regard to the violence between two groups in Dhannideeh village.