While Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adiyanath launched ‘Mission Shakti’- a 180-day campaign focused on women’s safety, vowing “zero tolerance” towards crimes against women on Saturday, two 15-year-old girls got raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur and Meerut.
Here are five components of the story:
- One of the teenagers was allegedly raped by two men in a paddy field outside a village in Sikarara area of eastern Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Jaunpur district. The incident occurred when the girl was returning home after buying medicines from a local market.
- Another 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped in a car in TP Nagar neighbourhood of Meerut, police said on Sunday. Police have arrested the accused, Pulkit Saini (20), following a complaint by the girl’s father.
- A forensic team also visited the spot and collected evidence from the car, where the teenager was allegedly raped. While the accused’s car had a BJP flag on it, the party’s Meerut chief Mukesh Singhal said the accused was not a member of the party and he was fraudulently using the Goraksha Samiti sticker and the party flag on his car.
- While the campaign was launched in the wake of nationwide outrage against the government and UP police for its handling of the case related to the alleged gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras last month, the accused for the rape of this 15-year-old girl in Jaunpur, have not been traced yet.
- UP CM during the launch of the campaign said, “perpetrators of such crimes are a blot on the society and the government will deal with them with an iron fist.” However, ground reality remains questionable in the state.