Mumbai: Union minister of state for Youth Affairs and Sports Raksha Khadse’s daughter and a few of her friends were allegedly molested at a Maha Shivaratri event in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra on Friday. Khadse reached the Muktainagar police station with her supporters on Sunday and lodged a formal complaint.
The incident has sparked off a political debate, with Opposition leaders in the state claiming that the law-and-order situation in Maharashtra has deteriorated and women are unsafe. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that one of the accused has been arrested and a search is on for the others. None involved in this case will be spared, he said.
BJP leaders in Maharashtra said that the accused are members of a political party who carried out the act under the guise of carrying out a protest. Raksha’s father-in-law Eknath Khadse, a former minister, alleged that the arrested man is a history sheeter with several criminal cases pending against him.
“On Friday, there was a religious yatra at Kothali village in the Muktainagar taluka of Jalgaon. Aniket Ghui, a resident of Muktainagar City and six of his friends, stalked and molested 3-4 girls. We have charged them for stalking and molestation. They have also been charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Information Technology Act,” Krishnat Pingale, SDPO, Muktainagar, told journalists.
Rohini Khadse, state president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP, Sharad Pawar faction) said: “If something of this sort can happen to the daughter of a union minister, how will girls and women from ordinary families get justice.”
