A Look at the BJP’s Tainted History: Several Members Face Allegations of Sexual Offences

Even as the outrage spreads in the country following the brutal gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in a temple in Kathua—allegedly, committed to teach a lesson to her community—PM Modi has chosen to maintain a deafening silence. While the right-wing Hindu Ekta Manch’s protest march—demanding release of a special police officer (SPO) accused— was led by the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party’s state secretary, the MP BJP chief has managed to find a Pakistan link in the incident.

On the other hand, the CBI has taken over the investigations in the rape case in Unnao, in which a BJP MLA is the accused.

This is not the first time the ruling party – or for that matter,any political party – has been in a pickle over allegations of sexual assault. However, the number of allegations raised against BJP members, especially in the past few years, are quite too many. It wasn’t too long ago when the party had rushed to protect Haryana BJP Chief’s son, who was accused of stalking daughter of an IAS officer.

Take a look at some of the rape and sexual assault cases against the BJP members that made to the headlines:

• March 2017:

Bhojpal Singh, a BJP leader and two of his aides were booked for allegedly gang raping a Dalit woman after promising her help in getting a BPL card in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena.

• February 2017:

Jayesh Patel (66), a Gujarat BJP leader and the founder-president of the privately owned Parul University in Vadodara, was booked Saturday for rape after a 22-year-old nursing student of the university.

A 24-year-old woman was gang-raped by 10 people, including four local BJP leaders in Gujarat’s Kutch district. The four leaders named in the complaint were Shantilal Solanki, Govind Parumalani, Ajit Ramvani and Vasant Bhanushali.

Former Delhi BJP MLA Vijay Jolly was booked in a case of rape after a woman alleged that he drugged and assaulted her.

• January 2017:

BJP corporator from Kashimira Anil Bhosale was booked for allegedly raping and having unnatural sex with a 44-year-old married woman.

• December 2016

A tribal girl in Baitul district of Madhya Pradesh was allegedly gang raped by a local BJP leader and his five accomplices for refusing to withdraw a molestation case filed against him by her.

• Novermber 2016

A local BJP leader in Gujarat was arrested for molesting a 13 years old girl on a Goa-Ahmedabad flight of IndiGo airlines, six months after the incident. The accused is Gandhinagar-based Ashok Makwana, a local BJP leader and labour contractor.

• October 2016

A 38-year-old woman from Chitradurga filed a rape case against a BJP leader, alleging that BJP leader Venkatesh Maurya came in contact with her in 2010 and introduced himself as a BJP leader and a member of the National Executive Council of BJP’s SC Morcha.

• July 2016

The Uttarakhand Police booked BJP leader Harak Singh Rawat after a complaint on charges of rape and harassment was lodged against him by a 32-year-old woman.

• September 2015

A Delhi court put on trial BJP leader Umesh Aggarwal from Gurgaon and two others for allegedly drugging and raping a 30-year-old woman in a hotel in Faridabad.

• August 2014

A Madhya Pradesh BJP leader Hamid Sardar and five others, including a woman, were arrested in a case of sexual assault and trafficking of a minor girl from Assam.

• June 2014

Summons were issued by a lower court to Nihal Chand in a sexual assault case, the lone MP from Rajasthan, who had got a berth in Narendra Modi's council of ministers. The court order came following a revision petition by a 20-year-old, who had accused her husband and his friends of sexually exploiting her.

• November 2013

D N Jeevaraj, BJP leader from Sringeri in district was booked for kidnapping and raping a 23-year-old woman in Chikmagalur district in Karnataka.

Allegations of rape had surfaced against the BJP leader Krishnamurti Bandhi from Bilaspur district. The complaint had been leveled by a woman who was later found burnt in mysterious circumstances.

• September 2013

Former Cooperative Bank Chairman and former BJP leader Pramod Gupta was sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court in a five years old rape case.

• July 2013

Former Madhya Pradesh minister, 79-year-old Raghavji, was accused of sexual abuse by his domestic help. He had resigned as state finance minister earlier after a CD purportedly featuring him surfaced and his domestic help filed a police complaint alleging that she was being sexually exploited by the minister.

• May 2013

Senior BJP leader and the then Maharashtra spokesperson for the party, Madhu Chavan was charged with rape, following a complaint by a woman, who alleged that she had been in a relationship with the former MLA for the last 20 years but he had not fulfilled the promise of marrying her.

• November 2012

A 21-year-old woman in Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh claimed that she was raped by the nephew of a local BJP leader inside the party office.

• May 2010

Former Karnataka food and civil supplies minister H Halappa was arrested in connection with a rape case filed against him by his friend's wife.

• March 2009

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashok Taneja was arrested after his daughter accused him of raping her for eight years. A medical examination confirmed that the girl was subjected to intercourse.