Bulandshahr gang-rape: Wish UP women vote for someone who can protect them, says NCW chief

New Delhi: National Commission for Women chief Lalitha Kumaramangalam slammed the UP government on Sunday over the gang-rape of a woman and her teenaged daughter near Bulandshahr and said she wished that women in the state would “wake up and understand that they should vote for someone who can protect them”. [caption id=“attachment_2926240” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] She also questioned the genuineness of the arrest made by police in the case and said they “may have just picked up someone else and said this is one of the rapists”. It is “extremely difficult” to find any cooperation from any district administration in Uttar Pardesh and it seems to be a state “which does not respect its women at all”. “I wish women in UP will wake up and understand that they should vote for someone who can protect them,” she said. Kumaramangalam, who was a member of the BJP’s National Executive Committee when she was appointed to the post in 2014, said the empowerment of women in Uttar Pradesh remained a “distant dream”. “We have taken cognisance of this and my member has already left for Noida to meet the victims. She will later be going to Bulandshahr to speak to SP, DSP and IO,” the NCW chief said. She said it was “really funny” that only one person has been arrested even though a gang operates there. “We are afraid and we even suspect that he may not be the actual perpetrator at all. Because of the pressure that has been put on them (police), may be they just picked up someone else and said this is one of the rapists,” she said. “And medical authorities and police can be in gang with each other. I am really afraid that UP is the the worst place (for women) in the country… We get 60 per cent of our complaints from that state,” she said. A gang of bandits had raped a woman and her teenaged daughter after dragging them out of their car at Bulandshahr bypass on Friday night when the family from Noida was travelling on NH-91.