BJP serves ultimatum on CM

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 24

Former Chief Minister PK Dhumal today served ultimatum on Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to resign on moral grounds by July 26 failing which BJP workers would hold dharnas at all 7,479 polling booths in the state and burn the effigy of the Chief Minister on July 27.

Dhumal, who met family members of the victim, along with all BJP MLAs of Shimla and office-bearers to express condolences, said people had lost faith in the state government.

Stating that it was a challenging time for any government when it lost its credibility, Dhumal said, “The Chief Minister must own responsibility for the tardy police investigation in the minor girl's rape and murder case in Kotkhai as the incident has shamed Devbhoomi,” and added that one mistake after another in the case led to the public outcry.

“The family of the victim feels hurt by the insensitive statements of the Chief Minister that such incident happens. The family wants stern action against the culprits but do not want any innocent person to be falsely implicated,” he added.

There is a general opinion among the people that the earlier investigations were going on in the right direction, but SIT derailed the investigations and innocent poor people were being falsely implicated in the case to save some influential people, he said.

“As per villagers, the body was found 25 metres away from intersection of two roads and it is not possible that nobody spotted the body for two days. Moreover, the photographs of the suspects uploaded on the facebook page of the CM, which were removed within minutes, did not match the accused who were arrested, adding to the confusion, Dhumal said.

The people of Kotkhai were also not ready to believe that Raju, an accused in the case, killed another accused Suraj in the lock-up and even if it was true, what was the police doing and why both of them were lodged in the same cell, BJP leader said. The BJP also gave Rs 5 lakh to the family of the victim.

In reply to a question that some Congress MLAs had raised their voice against the government on the issue, Dhumal said, "We welcome those MLAs who have risen above party politics and registered their protest on the issue."

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The investigations regarding who posted the photographs of the suspects on the Chief Minister's facebook page should also be probed by the CBI and action should be taken against those found guilty, said Dhumal