The Congress today demanded that all accused in the Rohtak gangrape and murder case be punished "with nothing less than capital punishment", while holding the BJP government in Haryana responsible for rise in crimes against women in the state.
Taking on the Manohar Lal Khattar government, Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza said the law and order situation in the state was deteriorating with each passing day.
She said the situation in Haryana on atrocities and crime against women was a matter of concern for all and with each passing day the incidents of torture, rape, gangrape and violence against women were increasing in the state.
"As per crime records bureau, Haryana has emerged as the number one state in rapes. We demand that all accused in the Rohtak gangrape case be arrested immediately and such a case be lodged against them that do not get anything less than capital punishment," she told reporters.
Oza, who is also the Mahila Congress chief, alleged that if a women gets assaulted and makes complaint with the police, the authorities first blame the victim and engage in her character assassination.
She said Haryana's BJP government is clearly responsible for the "deteriorating" situation of violence against women and has "failed" to protect women despite tall claims of 'beti padhao, beti bachao' campaign, which has remained only on paper.
"The law and order situation in the state is bad and the BJP government needs to wake up from its slumber," she said, adding it was time the safety and security of women was accorded top priority by the Khattar government.
The Congress leader said the response of chief minister Khattar has been "very insensitive" whenever questions pertaining to rapes were posed to him.
"If the chief minister himself considers rape as a small incident, how will the state police protect the women and nab the accused," she asked.
Oza alleged that the state police has failed to provide security to the Rohtak gangrape victim who hails from Sonipat, as the victim had told the police about the threat she faced from the accused.
She claimed that after the victim's death, her family was getting threats and the government did not provided any security to them.
"Had the police been alert, such a heinous crime would not have taken place," she said.
The Mahila Congress chief also mentioned another incident in which a woman from Sikkim was gangraped in Gurugram, highlighting the law order situation in the state.
She listed out a number of other such incidents of crime against women across the state in the past few weeks.