Hyderabad police have dismissed the BJP MLA’s claim as baseless.
In a new twist in the Hyderabad teen gangrape case, a BJP MLA has released a video clip and photographs, alleging the presence of an AIMIM MLA’s son in a car with the survivor, where the leader says the minor was sexually assaulted.
Police have so far maintained that the legislator’s son was not present at the time of the crime.
The video clip and photographs shared with NDTV show a young man, said to be the AIMIM MLA’s son, involved in an intimate act with the minor girl in the presence of other accused.
Alleging cover-up and delay in police action, BJP MLA Raghunandan Rao sought to know why the police have not named the MLA’s son as one of the accused.
“The police have admitted the girl is a minor and sexual assault took place. Now they must answer who is sexually assaulting the girl inside the Mercedes. Is it the MLA’s son or not? As you know, for a minor, there is no question of consent. Why aren’t those inside the Mercedes being booked under the POCSO Act? Why has the MLA’s son been let off,” Mr Rao asks.
The BJP MLA claimed he has more evidence to prove the involvement of the AIMIM MLA’s son in the crime.
Hyderabad police have dismissed the BJP MLA’s claim as baseless.
“We have identified five culprits as per CCTV footage and the statement of the survivor, and the MLA’s son is not one of them, “Joel Davis, Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Zone, said on Friday.
Three accused, including two teenagers, have been taken into custody so far for allegedly raping the girl. One of the two teenagers detained yesterday is the son of a local leader of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi party. Another accused, identified as Saduddin Malik, was arrested on Friday.
The 17-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by five young men when she was returning home after a party in the Jubilee Hills area of Hyderabad on May 28.
The boys had offered to drop her home. Instead, they went to a pastry and coffee shop, where they changed into an Innova. After travelling for a while, she was allegedly assaulted inside the parked vehicle in the city. They took turns raping her while the others stood guard outside, the police said.