BJP demands firm action against perpetrators of Guwahati violence

New Delhi -  Terming the Guwahati molestation case to be very shameful, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday demanded the Assam Government to initiate immediate action and ensure that perpetrators of the heinous act are given due punishments following a speedy trial into the case.

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman called for immediate action to be taken after a speedy trial of those who beat up the girl in front of the camera.

"Otherwise, women will not feel secure," she said.

"I think it is important that immediate action is taken in the case of the Guwahati incident, where only four people have been arrested so far. The Assam Government should immediately arrest the rest of them also. We are very worried that in the state of Assam, the government has not initiated action very quickly in this matter," she added.

Sitharaman said the women feel very insecure in different parts of the country and they are beaten up in public by unlawful elements.

 "The way in which a girl in public was attacked by several men. And in that in spite of repeated public outcry and media coverage, we hear only four people have been arrested and the rest are still missing or have not been captured by the police," said Sitharaman.

"It's a shameful incident and not just in Assam, everywhere we are repeatedly coming across situations where women are being beaten up in public by unlawful elements and these people are not very quickly brought to justice and therefore women feel very insecure in different parts of the country," she added.

Sitharaman also commented on the incident involving Congress MLA Rumi Nath in Assam, who was also beaten up a few days back to throw light on the atrocities being committed against women nowadays.

"Let me remind here that in the state of Assam, only recently a woman MLA was also beaten up. A FIR has been filed against her on the contrary, when she herself was a victim. In Delhi, we have seen repeatedly women being attacked, particularly those who come from the northeast," said Sitharaman.

"And in other parts of the country, we are constantly hearing incidents of women being harassed in public, and there is definitely an indifference from state police in taking firm action, bringing the relevant sections of the IPC into framework. When lenient cases are built up, these people are even let go without firm legal action," she added.

A girl was molested on Monday as she was returning home from a party at a bar located in Guwahati's Post Office area.

The incident came to light after an amateur video of the incident was uploaded on YouTube. The video shows the mob, consisting of around 20 men, beating the girl before stripping her.

The shameful act continued for 30 minutes till police arrived and rescued the girl, and handed her over to her parents.

Police later arrested four persons following public outrage over the incident.