E-Paper
Dalit woman’s murder: Will resign if justice not delivered, says Faizabad MP
The 22-year-old had been missing since Thursday night On Saturday morning, her brother-in-law discovered her body in a canal
The alleged gang rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman in Ayodhya district has drawn sharp reactions from leaders of several political parties.
While Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad said he would raise the issue in Parliament, Priyanka Gandhi of the Congress demanded strict action against the culprits, as well as police officials for laxity in the case. Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati also demanded strict action against the culprits.
The Milkipur assembly seat of Ayodhya is set for a bypoll on February 5. The votes will be counted on February 8. The seat fell vacant after Prasad, then MLA from Milkipur, won the 2024 parliamentary elections. The contest there has become bipolar between the SP and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the BSP abstaining from the bypoll and the Congress announcing its support to the SP candidate.
On Saturday evening, Prasad met the family of the deceased. During a press conference on Sunday, he said he would resign if he could not get justice for the victim’s family. Speaking on the murder of the Dalit woman, the MP broke down in front of media persons and said, “I failed to save her. Let me go to Delhi, to Lok Sabha. I will raise this matter before [Prime Minister] Modi. If we don’t get justice, I will resign.”
Commenting on the MP’s statement, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who was campaigning in Milkipur on Sunday, said, “During the assembly by-election, their (SP) cruel leader strangled a Dalit girl to death in Mainpuri. Yesterday, an incident happened with a woman in Ayodhya and, today, their MP is doing drama. If there is an investigation, then some cruel person from the SP will definitely be found to be involved in it.”
The 22-year-old had been missing since Thursday night. Her family launched a desperate search but failed to find her. On Saturday morning, her brother-in-law discovered her body in a small canal, just 500 meters from their village.
Responding to the incident, Priyanka, a Congress MP, wrote on her X account: “The kind of barbarism that was done to a Dalit girl who had gone to listen to Bhagwat Katha in Ayodhya, will send chills down the spine of any human being. Such cruel incidents shame the entire humanity. The girl was missing for three days but the police did nothing. In the BJP’s Jungle Raj, there is no one to listen to the cries of Dalits, tribals, backward and poor. The UP government has become synonymous with the atrocities on Dalits. I demand that strict action be taken against the culprits who committed the atrocities as well as the responsible policemen and officers.”
Former CM Mayawati also expressed shock and demanded strict action against the incident. “The body of a daughter of a Dalit family was found naked in Sahnawan, Ayodhya district of Uttar Pradesh. Both her eyes were gouged out. This is a very sad and serious matter. The government should take strict steps so that such an incident does not recur,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, Ayodhya police circle officer Ashutosh Tiwari said that the police had registered a missing person’s complaint on Friday after the family reported her disappearance. After the body was found, a post-mortem examination was ordered to determine the cause of the death. He stated, “We have detained two persons from the woman’s village and are interrogating them. We have not yet received the post-mortem report. After getting it, we will take further actions.”
