In yet another major embarrassment for the National Student Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the congress party, has now suspended district vice-president of the Sarguja unit who has been arrested by the police in connection with the rape of a class 11th student in Ambikapur of Chhattisgarh.
The accused congress youth leader has been identified as Afsar Ali. As per a report published in the local media, the accused, Afsar lured a minor girl and forced her into a physical relationship on the pretext of marrying her; he also had allegedly promised the victim girl to help her become a doctor.
After luring the girl into a physical relationship, the accused later refused to marry her and raped her several times after threatening her to post her obscene video on social media.
Dejected by the situation, the victim girl narrated the story to her parents. She later approached the police with a written complaint against the accused, following which the district police apprehended the congress leader along with one of his associates in the case.
It’s been learnt that the accused, Afsar Ali used to call the victim girl in hotel ‘Nishant Inn’ and rape her. He was booked under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and paraded before the magistrate, where he was sent to Judicial custody.
It has also come to the fore that after the matter got disclosed before the parents of Afsar, his father approached the victim girl’s family and allegedly offered them Rs 10 lakh to settle the case; he also promised the girl’s family that he would find a suitable groom for the girl in Bihar as well.
However, pained by the act of Afsar, the minor girl’s family refused the offer and later approached the police with a complaint.
Meanwhile, the congress party has also suspended Afsar from the post of district vice-president of NSUI of the Sarguja unit.
Speaking with the Organiser, social worker and BJP functionary Indrajit Bhagat said “that the congress is claiming that the accused leader had already been suspended by the party for anti-parties activities but that is not true, as the accused congress leader has been running his social media accounts as the NSUI vice president till the matter got disclosed in public.”
When asked about the occurrence of crime in a hotel run by a BJP worker, Bhagat replied: “that it’s true that the accused used to call the victim at one of the hotels belonging to the BJP functionary but being the owner of the hotel he was absolutely in no position to know about the misdeeds of the accused.”
It is pertinent to mention here that this is not the first time that an NSUI leader has been alleged of a heinous crime such as raping a girl; earlier in another incident, state general secretary of NSUI, Ruhab Memon from Kanker of Chhattisgarh, had also been apprehended by the police in a college girl rape case.
As reported by the Organiser, the victim informed the police that Ruhab used to call her frequently and assisted her with college admission. Though, one day, he took the girl to a secluded place on the pretext of strolling around and raping her.
He also told the girl not to disclose the incident to anyone. However, the girl later approached the police, following which Ruhab was arrested.
In another similar incident reported in 2018, a women member of NSUI alleged that she had been sexually exploited by a senior NSUI member during the national convention in Bengaluru. It was also reported that after the incident came to light, the Congress youth wing had also set up a committee to investigate the matter.
