The Uttar Pradesh police on Sunday arrested three people and charged them with gang-rape for allegedly sexually assaulting a student inside the Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) campus in November.  The arrests, which came two months after protests broke out in the institute, triggered a political row, with the Opposition saying that the accused were being shielded as they were linked to the BJP, a charge denied by the ruling party.

In the early hours of November 2, a 22-year-old student was allegedly waylaid, stripped, and sexually assaulted by three men when she stepped out of her hostel to meet a friend, according to the FIR. The complainant said that the three accused, who were riding a motorcycle, also recorded the assault.

The incident triggered protests by students, who demanded better security inside the campus.

On the basis of the woman’s complaint, an FIR was registered under Section 354 (assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code at Lanka police station.  Subsequently, the charge of gang rape was added to the FIR.

“Three people have been arrested in the case. They have been identified as Kunal Pandey. Anand aka Abhishek Chauhan, and Saksham Patel,” assistant Commissioner of Police, Bhelupur, Atul Anjan Tripathi said.

Police said that the three accused, all in their 20s, were not students of IIT-BHU.

Opposition leaders shared on social media the purported images of the three accused with various BJP leaders and launched an attack on the chief minister Yogi Adityanath-led state government.  

“Every woman across the country is seeing how the BJP is playing with women’s dignity and protecting those accused of atrocities,” former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav posted on X (formerly Twitter).

The Congress’s state chief said that for the BJP, “Bachao-Beti Padhao’ was just a slogan.

“The person who gang-raped an IIT BHU student is none other than BJP’s Kunal Pandey, convener of Mahanagar IT cell, and Saksham Patel, who is the PA of Dilip Patel (Kashi zone president of the BJP),” he posted.

Patel, however, said that Saksham was never his PA.  “As a worker, he accompanied me sometimes but  two months before the shameful incident of he had ended his association with BJP and me.”

The BJP said that the guilty will be duly punished as per the law under the Yogi government.  “Under the BJP government , even after having an association with the party, a person who has committed a crime will be arrested and get strict punishment,” party spokesperson  Rakesh Tripathi said.