Elections 2019: RJD Slammed For Fielding Wife of Rape Convict in Bihar

A day after opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal decided to give ticket to Vibha Devi, wife of expelled party MLA Rajballabh Yadav who has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a minor girl, Left parties have slammed RJD..

RJD state president Ramchandra Purbe on Friday announced his party’s decision to field jailed Yadav’s wife from Nawada parliamentary seat.

Yadav was convicted under section 376 (punishment for rape) of Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) in 2018. After being convicted, Yadav lost his membership of the Bihar Legislative Assembly.

Yadav is a former minister and is locally known as “dabang” for his muscle power and running illegal sand mining in Nawada. In the last Lok Sabha polls in 2014, he was defeated by BJP leader Giriraj Singh.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary Awadhesh Kumar said that RJD should have avoided this move as it will send a wrong message to the people. He said, “Though it is an internal matter of the RJD, what matters most is that how people will take it.”

“It is an insult to women as Yadav was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for rape of a minor girl. RJD has proved again what it stand for and it has no respect for rule of law,” Janat Dal-United spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said.

Lok Janshakti Party state president and Bihar Minister Pasupati Kumar Paras said RJD will get the reply by people for the putting wife of a convict of rape of minor girl.

However,RJD leaders have maintained silence over it and refused to say anything.

According to the police complaint filed by the girl, on February 6, 2016, a woman named Sulekha Devi took her to an undisclosed location in Nalanda and forced her to have liquor, after which she was raped by a man, later identified as Yadav.

After she was raped, the girl said, the woman gave her Rs 30,000. She then went home and told her parents about the incident.