'BJP supporting the accused': NCP on Kathua rape case

The Sharad Pawar-led party also accused the BJP of not initiating any action against its rape accused MLA in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

Mumbai, Apr 12: The NCP on Thursday accused the BJP, the ruling ally in the Mehbooba Mufti government in Jammu and Kashmir, of "shielding" the accused involved in the alleged gang rape and killing of a minor girl in Kathua.

The Sharad Pawar-led party also accused the BJP of not initiating any action against its rape accused MLA in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

"The gang-rapes in Unnao and Kathua, and the incidents that followed these ghastly crimes are shocking and inhuman. A gang-rape victim's father is arrested and killed in police custody (in Unnao), but no action is taken against the accused BJP MLA," NCP general secretary, D P Tripathi, told reporters here.

He said the BJP was supporting the accused persons involved in the alleged gang-rape of a minor girl in Kathua in Jammu.

"No party has taken such a stand in independent India," said Tripathi.

Police in Uttar Pradesh today registered an FIR against ruling BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in connection with the alleged gang-rape of a teenage girl in Unnao. The Yogi Adityanath government has said the investigation into the case would be handed over to the CBI. Sengar was booked under various sections of the IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The teen rape survivor had tried to immolate herself outside the chief minister's house just a day before her 50-year-old father died on Monday. In Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, an eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by six men who had held her in captivity in a small temple village for a week in January. She was allegedly drugged so that she could be sexually assaulted again before being bludgeoned to death, according to police.

PTI