Rajasthan CM blames BJP's 2005 tenure for girls' auction incidents

Jaipur, Oct 29: Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was in power in 2005 in the state, over the incident of girls auctioned on stamp papers in Bhilwara.

"The incident happened in 2005 when BJP was in power. In 2019, we came and exposed it. Twenty-one accused arrested, three died and one absconding. Two children died, rest went to their homes. It was turned into national news," ANI quoted Rajasthan CM as saying.

The National Commission of Women took cognizance of the matter.

The chairperson of the commission Rekha Sharma wrote to Rajasthan's chief secretary to take urgent action. She also wrote to the DGP of the state to arrest all the accused at the earliest.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) also took note of the incident. The NCPCR chairmen will visit the state reportedly on November 7.

"We will investigate. On November 7, I will visit the village affected by trafficking, meet affected families and try to know who all are involved in this nexus. We will see that nexus gets banned and accused is punished," said NCPCR chairman P Kanoongo.

The reported incident created an uproar between Congress and the BJP. The opposition slammed the Congress-led government in the state.

While assailing the Rajasthan government over the incident, the BJP leader Rajyavardhan Rathore said, "In Rajasthan, daughters and sisters are being sold, they are being made slaves. Yet the Congress government of Rajasthan is keeping silent on this. The morality of this government is gone."

He also said that the BJP would not tolerate this anarchy and "jungle raj which is going on in Rajasthan."

While Rajasthan minister Pratap Khachariya said on Friday, "It's a matter of investigation. When such information comes out, we can't know the truth until there is a probe. NHRC should've spoken to the Rajasthan police first about this. Selling of girls doesn't happen in the state," Ani quoted him as saying.

Accordion to the reports, whenever there is a dispute between the two parties particularly involving financial transactions and loans etc, the girls aged between 8-18 are auctioned to recover money. These girls are being sent to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Delhi and even foreign countries and subjected to physical abuse, torture and sexual assault in slavery. The media reports have documented the ordeal of many victims of such horrendous crimes.