As outrage mounted over his alleged involvement in the Unnao accident, BJP on Thursday expelled Kuldeep Singh Sengar from the party more than two years after he was accused of rape by a teenager in Unnao district.
The decision came after BJP received flak over Sengar's role t in the accident in which the victim and her lawyer were seriously injured while two of her aunts lost their lives, the case was handed over to the CBI and the trials shifted to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh by the Supreme Court.
Congress said BJP's action raised doubts over the intentions of the party as it had, according to them, continued to support its rape accused MLA for more than two years.
"Sengar has been an accused since long and now an attempt to take the victim and her family's life was undertaken. We were questioning the BJP for many days as to why they were supporting their leader. The BJP expelled them from the party in haste, but that should not be considered as their intention, they might still continue supporting their MLA from the sidelines," party leader P L Punia told reporters in New Delhi.
BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao, however, said the party will never tolerate people who are accused of such heinous crimes and added that his party was concerned about the security and the integrity of women in the country.
"We have taken action against him. There are questions about the security of the victim, so the party will not tolerate such people. The country has seen that the BJP has never tolerated such people and it will never tolerate them in the future too, however, there is a process in expelling an MLA from the party which we followed," Rao said.
He added that with Sengar's expulsion BJP had given a loud and clear message that politicians with criminal background will not be welcomed in the party.
Sengar was accused of allegedly raping the teenage girl at his residence in Unnao on June 4, 2017, where she had gone to seek a job.
He was arrested by the CBI last year and is lodged in Sitapur district jail.
The Supreme Court today ordered the CBI to carry out the probe in the accident involving the victim and her lawyer within seven days and also transferred cases related to the rape of the girl from UP to Delhi.
BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi, however, said the state government was fully committed to providing justice to the victim and assured that the accused MLA will definitely be dealt with strictly.
"An SIT worked out the entire case, on the demand of the rape victim's family the case has been handed over to the CBI by our government. There is zero-tolerance against crime in UP, the MLA is lodged in jail and there are dozens of cases against him. Nobody who is involved in the case will be spared," Joshi said.
( With inputs from ANI )