Teens harassed in Bihar: Cong slams BJP-led govt, Rahul Gandhi seeks swift justice
Teens harassed in Bihar: Cong slams BJP-led govt, Rahul Gandhi seeks swift justice
M.U.H
21/09/202611
New Delhi: The Congress on Monday attacked the BJP over the alleged harassment of a teenage boy and girl by a roadside in Bihar’s Jamui, with senior party leader Rahul Gandhi demanding prosecution of the perpetrators under the POCSO Act and an answer from the BJP-led state government on why a girl is not safe on a public road at 7 pm.
Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, sought swift justice in the incident.
Taking to microblogging platform X, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge said a shameful harassment occurred against a female student in Bihar’s Jamui, and before that, a 17-year-old girl was gang-raped and murdered in Delhi.
He said such incidents expose the lies and hypocrisy of the BJP’s “Nari Shakti Vandan” and “Beti Bachao” narratives.
“Our demand is clear: harshest punishment for the culprits and accountability from the state governments,” Kharge said.
In an X post, Rahul Gandhi asked who gave the men the right to behave the way they did.
“The video from Jamui, Bihar is deeply disturbing. Two Class 10 students were stopped on a road. Harassed. Humiliated. Molested. A young girl, hands folded, begged to be let go while goons groped her and dragged her away,” he wrote.
“This is not ‘culture’. It is patriarchy: the belief that any man can police a girl’s body, her movement, her choice,” Gandhi said.
When control is mistaken for culture, and such attitudes are normalised by “andhbhakts”, mobs start believing they are the law, Gandhi said.
“Every individual in that video must be identified and prosecuted under POCSO (Act), and justice must be swift. And if the incident happened on September 19th, why are the culprits not behind bars yet?” he added.
Gandhi further said the Bihar government must answer why a girl is not safe on a public road at 7 pm.
Congress’ media and publicity department head Pawan Khera also lashed out at the BJP over the incident.
“The incident in Jamui is so horrifying that X is restricting posts containing visuals of the incident, including my own. But no amount of censorship can hide the reality,” he said.
“Our society is already deeply entrenched in patriarchy and misogyny. Combine that with a government whose commitment to women goes little beyond lip service, and the result is disastrous. Had (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and (Home Minister Amit) Shah taken firm and exemplary action against perpetrators of violence against women, they could have established a clear standard of accountability and deterrence,” he said.
“Instead, their repeated political and institutional attempts to shield and reward such perpetrators create the opposite effect: A climate in which violence against women becomes a state-backed norm,” Khera said.
After the video of a teenage boy and girl being harassed by a group of men sparked outrage online, the Jamui Police on Monday arrested three persons and launched a search to nab the others.
Jamui Superintendent of Police Bishwajeet Dayal said the incident took place on September 19 evening and a Special Investigation Team headed by a woman officer, Sub-Divisional Police Officer Deepti Monali, was conducting raids to arrest all the culprits.
“Although the incident took place two days ago, no complaint was made before us by the boy or the girl till Sunday. Today, when the video went viral, we tracked down the victims by tracing the registration number of a vehicle visible in the clip,” the SP told reporters.
“The accused have not been named by the victims in the FIR lodged at Jamui police station, but we have identified around seven perpetrators from the video clip. Three persons have been arrested, and raids are being conducted to nab the others,” Dayal said.
The FIR has been lodged under the POCSO Act and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and steps have been initiated to “take down the video”, the SP said.
The boy and the girl were friends and attended the same coaching institute, he said, declining to provide further details.
The video, which purportedly shows the two teenagers being harassed by a group of people, has drawn criticism on social media as well as from political leaders.
PTI, however, could not independently verify the video’s authenticity.
