BJP stages walkout over rape in car case

BJP members in the Karnataka Assembly today staged a walkout after the government refused to meet their demand to arrest a police inspector in connection with the alleged abduction and rape of a 22-year-old woman in a car here.
Home Minister K J George, without making any reference to the BJP demand, said the incident was being probed and government would take stringent action against the guilty.
George said the government has taken all possible steps to bring the accused and absconding persons to book.
Rejecting BJP members allegations that the government was protecting the accused and diluting the case, he said, "There is no truth in it and we are sincerely pursuing it and the guilty will be punished."

Dissatisfied with the reply, BJP legislators cried foul and demanded the resignation of the Home Minister for allegedly attempting to dilute the case by invoking less stringent sections under the Indian Penal Code against the arrested main accused, who they alleged was related to a cabinet minister and was the son of a local BSP leader.
Raising the voice against government's "inaction" and the establishment's alleged attempt to protect the accused having political connection, all BJP members staged a walkout.

BJP, which had also raised the issue yesterday, had alleged that the inspector had deliberately made the case weak by not invoking stringent sections under the IPC.

In the July 10 midnight incident, the victim was sitting with her male friend in a car near her apartment when four men alighted from another car, forcibly got into their vehicle and drove them away, according to police.
Both were taken to a nearby railway track where three men forced the woman's friend out of the car, while the fourth allegedly sexually assaulted her in the vehicle, police said.