New Delhi: A 23-year-old woman, who had levelled allegations of rape against the son of Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi, was attacked with ink by two unidentified persons in Delhi on Saturday.
The attack allegedly took place while she was walking with her mother in the Kalindi Kunj area. She was rushed to the trauma centre at AIIMS where doctors examined her. “The incident took place around 9 pm Saturday. The men came in an auto, and threw something on me. They threatened me to take the case back, saying this is just a trailer,” the woman told ThePrint.
According to the police, a PCR call was received Saturday on the matter. “Two boys threw something on the woman while she was walking with her mother near Kalindi Kunj Road. She was thoroughly examined at the AIIMS trauma centre. The blue liquid prima facie looks like ink,” DCP South East Esha Pandey said.
A case was lodged under IPC Sections 195A (threatening any person to give false evidence), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code at the Shaheen Bagh police station.
Police are now scanning CCTV footage to identify the accused. Investigation is underway, Pandey said.
On 8 May, the Delhi Police had lodged an FIR against the accused, Rohit Joshi, on the basis of the woman’s complaint in which she accused him of raping and assaulting her on multiple instances in Delhi and Jaipur. According to the zero FIR lodged at Sadar Bazar police station, the alleged atrocities took place from January 2021 to April 2022.
In the FIR, the woman alleged that when she contacted him after the sexual assault, Rohit bragged that “no one can touch him” as he is a minister’s son. “He brags about his money and power and, in the end, says people won’t even know where I have disappeared. The Bhanwari Devi case will be repeated,” the FIR reads.
When the police team reached the accused’s house, Rohit wasn’t found there. He later applied for anticipatory bail before a Delhi court and was granted the same on Thursday.
“The accused has joined investigation and his statement has been recorded. Further investigation is on,” DCP North Delhi Sagar Singh Kalsi told ThePrint.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) took note of the ink and sent a notice to the Delhi Police about the matter. In a tweet, DCW chief Swati Maliwal tagged Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot urging him to arrest the accused instead of ‘saving’ him. “I am issuing notice to the Delhi Police to lodge an FIR for this attack,” Malilwal tweeted in Hindi.
जिस लड़की ने राजस्थान मंत्री महेश जोशी के बेटे रोहित जोशी पे रेप का आरोप लगाया, उसके चेहरे पे आज दिल्ली में 2 अज्ञात लोगों ने कुछ पदार्थ फेंका। @ashokgehlot51 जी, अपने मंत्री के बेटे को बचाने की जगह गिरफ़्तार करें। मैं दिल्ली पुलिस को नोटिस इशू कर रही हूँ इस अटैक पे FIR के लिए। pic.twitter.com/Y8gZfMWW4q
— Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) June 12, 2022
Rohit’s father Mahesh Joshi is Rajasthan’s Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) minister. On Friday, the Delhi Police questioned Rohit a day after he was granted anticipatory bail. The woman had claimed that she had filed the case in Delhi as she feared that she would not get justice in the Congress-ruled Rajasthan.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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