"It is most unfortunate that Mulayam, being a politician of a tall stature, makes such a baseless and unwarranted statement that the boys who had been given death penalty in the Shakti Mill gangrape case might have committed mistake," special public prosecutor in the case Ujjwal Nikam said.
If politicians make such statements, it would provoke young criminals to commit such serious crimes because of the support they were getting from the leaders of the country, he added.
"Ladke, ladke hain. Galti ho jati hai (Boys are boys. Mistakes happen sometimes)," he had said in an election rally in Moradabad two days back.
The SP leader had said there was a need to change the new rape law which provides for death sentence to repeat rape offenders.
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"Such statements were per se insulting not only to the poor and innocent victims in rape cases, but also to the womanhood," Nikam said.
Nikam wondered whether Singh was aware of the facts of the gangrape case and also how and under what circumstances were the two innocent girls gangraped by the three criminals who were given death in the cases.