THE ARREST of three men for the alleged sexual assault of an IIT-BHU student on campus premises was at the centre of a political firestorm on Monday as the Congress shared purported photos of the accused with the Prime Minister and BJP leaders.

 

The BJP, meanwhile, distanced itself from the men — whose social media profiles suggest they are part of the party’s IT cell in Varanasi — and said the police response to this case is in stark contrast to what would happen under previous governments.

 

Varanasi police had on Saturday arrested Kunal Pandey (28), Saksham Patel (20) and Abhishek Chauhan (22) for the incident, which took place on the night of November 1. According to police, Chauhan was booked in 2022 too on charges of physical assault, threatening and rioting in Varanasi.

 

On their Facebook profiles, Pandey and Patel state that they are associated with the BJP — the former as the party’s Varanasi (Mahanagar) IT cell coordinator and the latter as co-coordinator.

 

The two have posted several purported photographs with senior BJP leaders, mostly in the last three years. Pandey’s account has photographs purportedly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president J P Nadda, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy CM Brijesh Pathak, and other party leaders. Patel has photographs purportedly with the CM, Deputy CM, and Union Minister Anurag Thakur.

 

Uttar Pradesh BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi, however, said the photographs were nothing more than people posing with public figures, and added that as soon as the party learned of their arrest, they were expelled. “Had this kind of incident occurred during the Samajwadi Party’s regime, action would have not been taken. Our government took action in the case,” said Tripathi.

 

At a press conference, Mahila Congress chief Netta D’Souza displayed photos of the men with BJP leaders, and said that while the party trumpets the slogan “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao”, it has become “Balatkaari (rapist) Janata Party”.

 

“In your (Prime Minister’s) own parliamentary constituency, a girl student was gangraped and the accused turned out to be BJP IT cell members. It took 60 days to arrest them because these rapists were campaigning for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh elections,” she claimed.

 

The BJP state unit in Madhya Pradesh denied that the accused were part of the election campaign. “They have no connection to Madhya Pradesh. I cannot confirm if they worked for the BJP during the elections in Madhya Pradesh; as far as I know, they had nothing to do with the state unit. Criminals don’t have a religion or party affiliation. Our government is tough on crime and we don’t entertain criminals or give them posts,” said Narender Saluja, Madhya Pradesh BJP spokesperson.

 

However, a BJP source in the state unit said the accused were part of the social media team during the polls. “They were not given any posts but were part of a local social media team. Many youngsters are hired, who are part of a series of campaigns in the elections for any state. They are not part of the BJP unit of Madhya Pradesh,” said a party source.

 

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai said party workers would gherao the PM’s constituency office in Varanasi on Tuesday.

 

On Sunday, Samajwadi Party president and Leader of Opposition in the UP Assembly Akhilesh Yadav had said, “This is the new crop of BJP leaders, who have patronage from the senior leadership of the BJP.”