Randeep Surjewala.
Credit: PTI file photo
Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Friday continued to target the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh over the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Ujjain, and claimed that the attack on the Dalit minor was more brutal than that on the Nirbhaya case victim.
Surjewala visited the state-run Maharaja Tukojirao Holkar Women's Hospital in Indore, where the victim has been undergoing treatment for the last three days and underwent a complicated surgery.
Police in Ujjain city on Thursday arrested Bharat Soni, an autorickshaw driver, for allegedly raping the girl who had been found wandering on the city streets in an injured condition three days ago.
Speaking to reporters, the Congress general secretary alleged that as per the state government's direction, he was not allowed to meet the girl at the hospital, and he enquired about her well-being with the doctors treating her.
Doctors have performed a surgery on the girl, but it will probably take a month for her stitches to be removed, he said.
'From this, you can understand that this girl from a Dalit family in Satna has been tortured more than the woman in the Nirbhaya case of Delhi and her private parts have suffered serious injuries due to the heinous crime,' Surjewala said.
As part of a conspiracy to cover up the case, the state government kept saying that the victim was a beggar from Uttar Pradesh. But it has now come to light that she is a student of a school and belongs to a Dalit family living in Satna, he claimed.
'Doctors have informed me that whenever the girl regains consciousness, she asks for her school uniform,' the Congress leader said, claiming that she was brought to Ujjain from Satna and raped.
He further accused Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of maintaining a 'mysterious and conspiratorial' silence on the matter.
'Chouhan did not visit the hospital even once to enquire about the well-being of the rape victim. Why is the chief minister missing and silent on the matter?' he asked.
Hitting out at the BJP government in the state, Surjewala said, 'The truth is that Dalits and tribals in the state are no longer considered as human beings. Maximum atrocities on people from these communities have taken place under the BJP rule.' Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath has decided to provide a financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the victim's family and the party is also ready to provide free treatment to the girl at a major hospital in the National Capital Region (NCR), he added.