scorecardresearch
Friday, March 29, 2024
Support Our Journalism
HomePolitics‘Women have a tendency to light a fire': Minister's husband on Kanpur...

‘Women have a tendency to light a fire’: Minister’s husband on Kanpur mother, daughter deaths

Pramila Dixit & daughter Neha were burnt to death as shanty caught fire during demolition earlier this week. BJP leader Anil Shukla Warsi says ‘illegal acts’ were going on at site.

Follow Us :
Text Size:

Lucknow: Former MP Anil Shukla Warsi sought to blame the Kanpur mother-daughter duo for their deaths during the recent demolition exercise, saying that “women have a tendency to light fire”.

Warsi also alleged that “illegal acts” were going on at the shanty site where Pramila Dixit (48) and her daughter Neha (22) were charred to death under suspicious circumstances in the presence of a police team during an anti-encroachment exercise. 

“Women have a tendency to light fire, and the mother-daughter duo, who died in Kanpur, too, pretended to set themselves ablaze. They had no intention to do the same,” the former BSP MP told news channels in Kanpur on Thursday evening. “Will you give money, implore the family of a person who dies due to an illegal act?”

Warsi is the husband of junior minister of Women and Child Development in Uttar Pradesh, Pratibha Shukla.

He said that the attitude of his party (the Bharatiya Janata Party) was 100 per cent wrong and asked “if innocent people going about their duty will be sent to jail if a person dies on the spot due to such illegal acts.

In a video, which has gone viral, Warsi, who switched from the BSP to the BJP in 2015, suggested that the “mother-daughter duo died when they pretended to commit suicide, thinking that the police and administration would get scared and save them, but they ended up losing their lives.”

Alleging that “illegal acts” were going on at the spot, Warsi said the administration should not be made so nervous that it cannot take a decision in case a person dies due to such acts.

This is not a lone incident, he suggested. “In the future, too, such incidents are likely to happen. If an illegal act is happening, and if someone dies due to the same…then should the administration be made so nervous that it cannot take a decision, and will you start mollifying and imploring such a person (family of deceased women)? You will give him money and lodge an FIR against innocent people who are only following their duty and send them to jail? And then, they will also abuse the party!” he said.


Also Read: Kanpur horror: Family wants ‘entire’ demolition team arrested after mother-daughter burnt alive


‘Police did not take matchstick with them’

Soon after Warsi’s comments went viral, he diluted his stand on Friday, but remained firm on his view on the sequence of events of the Monday’s incident.

“She went and lit the fire. The people (police team) who went there did not take matchsticks with them. Moreover, the door was locked from inside, the fire broke out from inside,” Warsi alleged.

When reporters asked him about the presence of police and administration officials at the spot, Warsi said everyone tried to save the two women.

“Police, other officials all tried to save them. Someone from the team told the excavator driver to raise the unlit side of the shanty so that the flames are stopped from spreading. When he started the bulldozer, the entire structure came down, which led to a generator falling and diesel spilling on the ground, and the fire lighted up,” Warsi said.

Addressing the media, the former MP said, “Since the government machinery is involved in this incident, we are trying to make it a big issue. But if women are dying by setting themselves on fire….people are committing suicide by hanging themselves with fan….they are committing suicide. You all (media) should bring those incidents to light too.” 

Warsi said a fair probe was underway, and if the family had a problem, they could demand another investigation.

On Monday, Warsi’s supporters created ruckus at the place where the postmortem took place when they allegedly beat up members of a fringe outfit, Main Hoon Brahmin Mahasabha, with chappals for abusing the minister. Videos of the melee had gone viral on social media.

On the same night, the minister along with her husband and their supporters, including Bara Zila Panchayat member Krishna Gautam, reached the postmortem house. They were trying to talk to the aggrieved family that had refused to let police conduct a postmortem, when Durgeshmani Tripathi, head of the Main Hoon Brahmin Mahasabha, reached the spot along with others, including Saurabh Tiwari.

When Tripathi allegedly made objectionable remarks against the minister after some arguments, Gautam started abusing him and later attacked Tripathi with chappals, leading to chaos. 

Police had to intervene and the two sides were made to disengage somehow. That night, too, Warsi alleged that the two deaths were suicide.  

(Edited by Richa Mishra)


Also Read: ‘Guilty won’t just be suspended but jailed’: UP deputy CM on Kanpur demolition deaths


 

Subscribe to our channels on YouTube, Telegram & WhatsApp

Support Our Journalism

India needs fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism, packed with on-ground reporting. ThePrint – with exceptional reporters, columnists and editors – is doing just that.

Sustaining this needs support from wonderful readers like you.

Whether you live in India or overseas, you can take a paid subscription by clicking here.

Support Our Journalism

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular