Lucknow: Opposition parties on Sunday targeted the Uttar Pradesh government after two of the three accused in the IIT-BHU gangrape case were released on bail, saying that it exposed the hypocrisy of the BJP-led dispensation's claims about women's security.
In a post on X, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav shared a video which claimed that the accused were granted bail due to the state government's weak perusal of the case.
The opposition's attack came after photos of the two accused, Anand alias Abhishek Chauhan and Kunal Pandey, being accorded a warm welcome after being released from jail and cutting a cake went viral on social media.
Reportedly, Chauhan and Pandey were released from a Varanasi jail last week.
Allahabad High Court Justice Krishan Pahal granted bail to Chauhan on July 2 and to Pandey on July 4.
Pandey's counsel told the court that he had no criminal history and had been languishing in jail since December 31 last year.
In his post on X, SP chief Yadav said people are fed up with the BJP's politics and "anarchy".
Today, the BJP's train has reached its last station and it would be good if before ending the journey, the party apologises to the country with folded hands, he said.
Senior SP leader Juhie Singh said, "Women's safety? Fair justice? Harsh punishment? All this is just lip service in Uttar Pradesh." The Congress also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue, saying it has exposed the hypocrisy of his government and the BJP's claims about women's safety.
"Two BJP IT Cell members who gang-raped a BHU student in Banaras have been released from jail. According to reports, when they came out of jail, celebrations were held and they were welcomed with great pomp.
"After the gangrape, these BJP IT Cell members were sent to Madhya Pradesh to campaign for the BJP..." the Congress' official handle said in a post on X.
"Everyone knows that these BJP IT Cell members who gang-raped the woman are very important in their party. There are pictures of them with Modi, Yogi (Adityanath), J P Nadda and other senior BJP leaders," it said.
The party also shared the purported pictures of the accused with Modi and Adityanath.
The three accused allegedly raped a woman student of the Indian Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU) when she had come out of her hostel with a friend on the night of November 1 last year, according to the complaint lodged in the matter.
The accused allegedly took her to a corner, gagged and stripped her. They also made a video and clicked photos of the student before letting her go, the complaint stated.
Chauhan, Pandey and the third accused, Saksham Patel, were arrested in December last year.