Congress rakes up 17-year old rape allegation against Harshvardhan

New Delhi, Nov 13: Congress on Tuesday decided to take the political fight to a whole new level by raking up a 17-year-old rape allegation against Delhi BJP's chief ministerial candidate Dr Harshvardhan.

Congress hit back at Harshvardhan after he said that the Delhi government had failed to check the growing incidents of rape.

Dikshit along with two of her cabinet colleagues, Harun Yousuf and Raj Kumar Chouhan raised the issue at a press conference. "When he (Harshvardhan) was the Health Minister in 1998, he could not ensure the safety of one woman, how can he ensure the security of women in entire Delhi," Yousuf said.

Meanwhile, BJP in its election campaign took a dig at the Congress saying 'Rok Napaye Balatkar Badlo Congress Sarkar (Change the Congress government that could not stop rapes).

Harshvardhan: There is no evidence against me

On asking Dikshit why bring up such an old case now, she hit out at Harshvardhan saying that BJP's misleading campaign against the Delhi government made the Congress to bring up this issue.

"We had to give answers to their misleading campaigns as they said we could not prevent incidents of rape in the city," Dikshit said.

Harshvardhan on Wednesday hit back at Congress' allegations and said that the Congress was frustrated. "There is no evidence against me. Sheila Dikshit and the Congress party is frustrated," he told Times Now.

Harshavrdhan was embroiled in a controversy in July 1996 when it was alleged that a maid was raped in his official residence. Harshvardhan, who was the Health Minister then had denied the allegations and had even offered a DNA test to be conducted on him.

"In spite of the Delhi police's reluctance, the DNA test was conducted and there was nothing against me," he said.

OneIndia News