Lucknow: Kunal Pandey, Saksham Patel and Anand alias Abhishek Chauhan — the three BJP IT cell members arrested in connection with the alleged gang-rape inside the IIT-BHU campus — have social media profiles littered with pictures of them with PM Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi and BJP national president J.P. Nadda among others.
Pandey, according to the pictures uploaded on 25 June on his Facebook profile, is seen with other leaders of BJP’s Varanasi unit outside a train to Bhopal where he had travelled as part of the Mera Booth Sabse Mazboot campaign ahead of the Madhya Pradesh election.
The 2 November alleged gang-rape had led to protests at the IIT-BHU director’s office. While an initial FIR was lodged under sections 354-b (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and charges under the IT Act, the sections pertaining to gangrape (IPC 376-d) and insult to the modesty of women (509) were added later.
Moreover, the police had got the girl’s medical examination done only after she recorded her statement before the magistrate.
The three were arrested early Sunday morning following which Leader of Opposition in UP assembly Akhilesh Yadav and UP Congress chief Ajay Rai claimed the accused had strong links with the BJP.
While Pandey identifies himself as having served as the BJP IT cell convenor on his Facebook page, Patel claims to be the IT cell co-convenor of the BJP Varanasi city unit while Anand Chauhan was part of the working committee of the same.
According to a Varanasi BJP leader, Pandey is the son-in-law of Madan Mohan Tiwari, a local BJP councillor from Varanasi’s Brij Enclave in Sundarpur area, located at a distance of about 3 km from the spot where the gangrape allegedly took place.
Pandey’s Facebook page has pictures of him with Modi, Yogi, Union Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey, UP deputy CM Brajesh Pathak, UP minister Swatantra Dev Singh, among others.
While the Facebook profile and cover picture shows him with Modi and Nadda, Pandey has uploaded several pictures with senior BJP leaders including Pathak, Dev Singh, former BJP state vice-president and present Sikkim governor Lakshman Acharya and union minister Mahendra Nath Pandey.
Further, there are pictures with public relations incharge of the Varanasi parliamentary constituency Shiv Saran Pathak as well as of the pamphlets of BJP’s meetings.
In one of the 25 June pictures, Pandey is seen with the BJP Varanasi prant president Dilip Patel and city president Vidyasagar Patel, in others, he can be seen seated inside the train with fellow workers.
Pandey has also uploaded a list of the members of the BJP Varanasi’s IT cell which includes the name of Saksham Patel as the convenor of the “Ravidas mandal” of the IT cell and has been signed by him in capacity of the IT cell’s convenor and the BJP’s Varanasi city president Vidyasagar Rai.
There is also a video uploaded on 17 November that purportedly shows Pandey following the cavalcade of the UP CM in Varanasi.
RSS worker, pics with Yogi & deputy CM
On his Facebook profile, Saksham also identifies himself as a member of the BJP’s ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He, too, has a cover picture with Modi.
His Facebook page has several pictures — one in the RSS uniform, one in which he is felicitated by Varanasi Cantt MLA Saurabh Srivastava, one with UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.
On X, formerly Twitter, Saksham has uploaded pictures with Union minister Smriti Irani with a post dated June 9, 2022 which states that he participated in “an important meeting of the core team of the BJP’s IT cell and social media.”
There are pictures showing him with Nadda and Union minister Anurag Thakur.
Chauhan’s Facebook profile has a cover picture of himself posing with Keshav Maurya at an event while another picture from 19 January 2022 showed him with Yogi.
BJP Varanasi city president Vidyasagar Patel confirmed to ThePrint that the trio worked in the party’s IT cell. “They worked with us earlier but the IT cell has not been reconstituted since November. We are not aware of any criminal history (of the three),” he said.
Patel also conceded that Pandey was the son-in-law of BJP councillor Madan Mohan Tiwari but added that the party had no information about any previous involvement in criminal activities. “Nobody has it written on his or her face that he or she is a thief,” he said.
When reminded of the opposition leaders’ allegation that the trio are office bearers of the BJP’s IT cell in Varanasi, BJP state spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said that strict action will be taken against those who have committed the crime.
“Any member of the public can get pictures clicked with leaders. Even if they have got pictures clicked with anyone, they will face the law of the land and strict action will be taken against them under our government. They have been arrested now. In the past, when such incidents would take place in the Akhilesh Yadav regime or if any person from Rahul Gandhi’s party would have committed the crime, action would not have been taken but in our government, strict action will be taken against them,” he told ThePrint in defence.
Meanwhile, IIT-BHU Students Parliament vice-president Pranav Mukul told ThePrint that it was for the Varanasi police to answer why it took them two months to reveal the identity of the accused.
“We didn’t know about the identity of the culprit. We were not expecting them to have any political association. The police have to answer why there was so much delay in the arrest and what forced the delay in arrest. The police had taken the CCTV footage from the cameras installed in the IIT-BHU campus, but their identity was not released till the day they were arrested,” he said.
Mukul added that the survivor identified the accused via video conferencing on Sunday and they were produced before the court.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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