Congress slams Centre over rising crimes against women, says criminal justice system needs strengthening

Criticising the government over rise in crimes against women, the Congress asked it to strengthen the criminal justice system to check such crimes. Congress spokesperson Khushboo Sundar trained her guns on the BJP, alleging that three BJP-ruled states — Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra — topped the list of rapes and abductions of women in the country, even as Delhi continued to be the “rape capital” of the country. [caption id=“attachment_4276847” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] “It is high time the BJP strengthens the criminal justice system and take tangible action to reduce crime against women,” she told reporters. Khushboo said the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Report 2016 reveals the “hollow claims” of women security and exposes BJP’s deception of ‘mahila suraksha’ (women protection). She said that a 19-year-old woman was gangraped in a moving car when she was going from Gurgaon to Noida, on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new metro line in Noida. Earlier, she said, another 20-year-old woman was raped by five men in Delhi and repeated incidents of violence against women and continuous rise in crimes in the NCR region is a matter of grave concern. “The BJP which heavily politicised the Nirbhaya gangrape and talked about providing security to women is in charge of the same in the capital, yet Delhi continuous to hold this tag of being the ‘rape capital of India’,” she said. Citing NCRB figures, she said, total crimes against women in India have increased in 2016 as compared to 2015 by almost 3 percent and 3,38,954 incidents of crimes against women took place in 2016 as compared to 3,29,243. She said while Madhya Pradesh has 4,882 rape cases reported, Uttar Pradesh has 4,816 and Maharashtra has 4,189 cases of rape. She added that Uttar Pradesh has 12,994 and Maharashtra 6,170 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women. Bihar is a distant third.