Thaindian News

Lucknow, Feb 7 (IANS) Congress MP Rahul Gandhi devoted Monday to visiting two 17-year-old Dalit girls who have been victims of brutal sexual assault — he first travelled to the village in Banda to meet the teen allegedly raped by a ruling BSP legislator and then went to Kanpur to visit the other minor who was mutilated over the weekend for resisting gangrape.The Congress MP, in Uttar Pradesh to visit his constituency Amethi, had planned to begin the day by stopping over in Kanpur to meet the minor, who was hospitalised after being brutally disfigured Sunday.

His flight could not land because of poor visibility. But Gandhi did not give up. He flew to Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh from where he drove 120 km to reach Shahbazpur village in Banda to meet the 17-year-old Dalit girl who was allegedly raped and kept in captivity by Bahujan Samaj Party legislator Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi and his henchmen.

Dwivedi, who is now behind bars, had got her jailed on false theft charges.

Gandhi spent 15-20 minutes with the girl, who was released from jail last month on Chief Minister Mayawati’s intervention and who has said she wants to kill the BSP legislator “with my own hands”.

Gandhi, who has been visiting Dalit homes across the country in a bid to enhance support for the party at the grassroots level, had a glass of milk at the victim’s home in the village, officials said.

He reached Kanpur late Monday afternoon to meet the minor, undergoing treatment at the medical college here after being attacked brutally for resisting gangrape by three young men belonging to her native village, Udauli, in Fatehpur district.

Gandhi also announced financial assistance of Rs.1 lakh. The money was handed over later in the evening by state Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

Since the minor girl was partially sedated, Gandhi spoke at length to her father and assured him of “every kind of help that the girl might require”.

He also praised the girl for her bravery in fighting back the rapists, who eventually managed to disfigure her face and arms apart from nearly chopping off one of her ears before abandoning her on the outskirts of the village.

The girl was Sunday admitted to a Kanpur hospital where a team of orthopaedic and plastic surgeons spent hours Sunday carrying out several rounds of surgery to restore her half-chopped ear, badly smashed fingers and deep gashes on the face.

Gandhi spent about 15 minutes with the family and the doctors attending on the victim.

“He even offered to get my daughter treated in Delhi, but I told him that the Uttar Pradesh government was providing free treatment at the medical college orthopaedic and plastic surgeons carried out several sounds of surgery to restore her deep gashes caused by an axe with which she was attacked,” the father told reporters after Gandhi’s departure.

Women activists Monday expressed shock at the attack.

Girija Vyas, chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW), said: “Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of rape and adduction cases in the country and is no justice is delivered. There is police inaction and there have been instances when innocent victims land behind bars.”

From Kanpur, Gandhi went to Sultanpur, part of his constituency Amethi.