Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the question on the minds of women and girls across Uttar Pradesh is whether their complaints against a powerful wrongdoer will be heard. Her remark, in a tweet in Hindi, came amid widespread anger over the car crash involving the Unnao rape survivor. “If some resourceful person does anything wrong then will our voices against him be heard,” she wrote.

A student’s question in Barabanki

In Barabanki on Wednesday, a senior police officer was left in an awkward position when a schoolgirl asked whether she could meet the same fate as the Unnao survivor. The officer, R S Gautam, Additional Superintendent of Police (North), was speaking at Anand Bhawan school as part of the “Balika Suraksha Jaagruktaa Abhiyaan”, a campaign to make girls aware of their safety.

Gautam told the students to stay alert and to call the toll-free helpline at once if they felt something wrong was being done to them. The girl then stood up and asked what would happen if the person they complained about found out and they met with an accident. She pointed out that in Unnao a girl who had accused an MLA was injured in a crash while pursuing her case, and was fighting for her life. The officer, taken aback, replied only that everyone who called the helpline would be given help.

Priyanka’s attack on the BJP

On Wednesday, Priyanka Gandhi said the Congress would fight hard for justice for the survivor. She said the harassment of the woman’s whole family could not have happened without protection from those in power, and that the “strands are now coming apart”, with a police cover-up and the names of BJP leaders emerging. She posted under the hashtag “Unnao ki beti”.

The case so far

A murder case has been registered by the CBI against Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a BJP MLA, and 10 others in connection with the crash. Sengar, a four-time MLA from the Bangermau constituency, has since been suspended by his party. The survivor has accused him of raping her at his home in 2017, when she was still a minor. A case was registered after she tried to set herself on fire outside Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence in Lucknow in April last year.

On Sunday, her car was hit by a truck while she was on her way to meet her uncle, Mahesh Singh, in Rae Bareli jail. Two relatives were killed, and she and her lawyer are in a critical condition in a Lucknow hospital. The family alleges the crash was a conspiracy, and the CBI has taken over the investigation.

See also: Indian National Congress and Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha members.

Originally published on 1 August 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us