Ahmedabad: Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani told the state assembly on Wednesday that he will order a judicial probe into allegations of a sex racket and rape in Kutch involving some local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
“The government is ready for a judicial probe in the matter. We are committed to ensuring that all guilty will be punished and no one will be spared,” he said.
His announcement in the Assembly came after the opposition Congress strongly took up the issue, forcing frequent adjournments of proceedings on Monday and Tuesday.
On Tuesday, ahead of the presentation of the state budget, Rupani assured the leader of opposition Shankarsinh Vaghela that a proper investigation would be carried out into the matter.
Rupani and deputy chief minister Nitin Patel met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Sunday to discuss the issue that has dealt a setback to the BJP in Gujarat, said a party official.
The Congress, which is the main opposition party in Gujarat, had launched a three-day march on Saturday called ‘Beti Bachao Andolan’ (Save the Daughter campaign) from Naliya in Kutch, where the alleged gang rape took place, to Gandhinagar, 550km away.
On Monday, thousands of Congress workers reached Gandhinagar to protest the incident just a few km from the state assembly. Around 100 protesting Aam Aadmi Party workers were detained by police outside the chief minister’s house in Gandhinagar.
According to an FIR filed with the Kutch police in late January, a woman alleged that she had been repeatedly abused and raped by at least nine men on different occasions. She also alleged that a group of businessmen and politicians had pushed 35 young women and college students into sex work.
Police have arrested at least eight persons, including four local BJP leaders who were suspended from the party.
