Govt not shielding anyone in rape case, CM

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said government was not shielding anybody and the guilty would be arrested in connection with alleged abduction and rape of a 22-year-old woman in a car here.
"We are not protecting anybody. We will arrest and take action against the accused without seeing who they are," he said in the Assembly where a BJP member alleged that government was protecting an accused, already arrested, as he was a minister's relative and son of a political leader.
The arrested is the son of a local BSP leader.
In the July 10 midnight incident, the victim was sitting with her male friend in a car near her apartment when four men alighted from another car, forcibly got into their vehicle and drove them away, according to police.

Both were taken to a nearby railway track where three men forced the woman's friend out of the car, while the fourth allegedly sexually assaulted her in the vehicle, police said.
"The government will give a statement tomorrow on the issue of filing an FIR against the police inspector over negligence of duty in the rape case," Siddaramaiah said.

He brushed aside allegations of BJP members that the inspector deliberately made the case weak by not invoking stringent sections under the IPC against the accused.
Raising the issue, former Speaker K G Bopaiah (BJP) alleged that the government was protecting the accused.

"We want to know who is the relative of the accused. I have an information he is related to a minister and son of a political leader," former Minister C T Ravi (BJP) said.
Another BJP member Suresh Kumar said mere suspension of the inspector is not enough. The Home Minister should take stringent action against the inspector instead of treating the case lightly, he said.
Ramesh Kumar (Cong) said an FIR should have been filed against the negligent inspector.