The country is witnessing an uproar over the rape cases in Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh. The justice for the victims sadly happens only after the uproar, as certain elements try to settle brownie points for their benefit. In this context, we wish to rehash two incidents of rape allegations where the vast majority kept a stony or even criminal silence. Why? Because it involved two of the country’s then most powerful persons – Rahul Gandhi and Ahmed Patel – during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)’s regime, controlled by the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi was represented by veteran lawyer P P Rao and he argued continuously for three days. His main contention was that this complaint was a political conspiracy to block the rise of Rahul Gandhi. CBI also said that the rape allegation was a non-existent one[1].

Around 2007, in the middle of the UPA-1 regime, Sonia Gandhi’s son Rahul Gandhi was facing allegations of rape and this case went up all the way to the Supreme Court (SC). Sonia Gandhi’s Political Secretary Ahmed Patel also met with similar allegations and this case to went up to the Supreme Court. Interestingly or mysteriously in both cases, the petitioners fizzled out or retracted their allegations in the SC. Media, Civil society groups and Feminists went completely silent on these two high profile rape allegations. Most media houses only dared to report when the petitioners retracted and cases were dismissed.

PGurus is bringing out the timeline of these two interesting cases involving rape allegations against Rahul Gandhi and Ahmed Patel.

Allegations against Rahul Gandhi

In early 2007, many bloggers published rape allegation against Rahul Gandhi. They alleged that one Sukanya Devi, local Congress leader’s daughter was raped by Rahul Gandhi and friends on December 3, 2006 at a circuit house in Amethi. The blogs said the girl and parents went missing after they came to complain to Sonia Gandhi in Delhi about the incident. Samajwadi Party was in power in Uttar Pradesh and the state was going for Assembly elections.

No media covered this report until March 2011. The issue got raked up when a former Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Samajwadi Party Kishore Samrite in March 2011, approached Allahabad High Court seeking a probe on the incident and the vanishing of Sukanya Devi and family. A Single Judge Bench issued notice to the State Government, the Police and Rahul Gandhi. This became a big news in many newspapers while the TV channels kept silent. In the petition, the ex-MLA said that he had gone to the village of Sukanya Devi after reading the blogs and found that the home was abandoned and the neighbors were unaware about the family’s mysterious disappearance after going to Delhi in December 2006.

But a dramatic thing happened two days later. One girl named as Kirti Singh approaches another Bench (Division Bench of two judges) of Allahabad High Court claiming as she is Sukanya Devi, seeking probe against the petitioner Kishore Samrite. Her allegation was that she is the Sukanya Devi mentioned in the petition listed in other Bench filed by the former Samajwadi MLA and that petition is just to malign her modesty. Without hearing the opposite side, that day itself the Bench ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe into all blogs carrying rape allegations and conspiracy angles behind such reports and interestingly imposed a heavy fine of Rs.50 lakhs on Kishore Samrite. By this surprising Order, the first Bench’s summon against Rahul Gandhi became null and void.

Within a week Kishore Samrite approached the Supreme Court against the unprecedented action of the Division Bench of Allahabad High Court and unheard of fine of Rs.50 lakhs that too without hearing his side, based on a petition filed by one Kirti Singh, who has no locus standi. Many newspapers started covering the Supreme Court proceedings, while TV channels kept mum. Supreme Court gave a stay on the Division Bench of Allahabad High Court order and started hearing the case in mid-2012.

But all of a sudden, Kishore Samrite retracted his complaint and said that he personally doesn’t have knowledge of the incident and that he was forced to give this petition by Samajwadi Party leaders including Mulayam Singh and the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. He even alleged that his petition details were discussed in the New Delhi home of Mulayam Singh and that he is withdrawing from the case and reiterated in the Supreme Court that he filed the petition against Rahul Gandhi on behalf of Mulayam and Akhilesh.

Rahul Gandhi was represented by veteran lawyer P P Rao and he argued continuously for three days. His main contention was that this complaint was a political conspiracy to block the rise of Rahul Gandhi. CBI also said that the rape allegation was a non-existent one[1].

In October 2012, the Supreme Court disposed of the petition terming the case a politically motivated one with malice and vendetta and reduced the fine on Kishore Samrite from Rs.50 lakhs to Rs.10 lakhs.

Here two questions remain unanswered:

Why did Kishore Samrite do a U-turn in the Supreme Court? Till date, neither Samajwadi Party nor Mulayam Singh/ Akhilesh Yadav has uttered a word on this incident and we have now seen in 2017 Rahul Gandhi aligning with Akhilesh Yadav, who according to Samrite, prompted the rape allegations. How come Rahul Gandhi allied with Akhilesh Yadav, after this incident?

The complete truth of this incident is not yet out as the politics is a game of gives and takes. The detailed Supreme Court Judgment on this incident can be accessed by clicking on this reference[2].

Allegations against Ahmed Patel

In early 2005, one Sunita Singh from Meerut approached Delhi Police that she was brutally raped by Congress leader Ahmed Patel at the home of the Mahila Congress leader and the then National Commission for Women (NCW) Member Yasmin Abrar’s home. According to her complaint, she was the wife of an ex-Army man and he used to beat her often and once she ran out of her home and jumped into a bus to Delhi and reached NCW office for help. The NCW put her in its shelter known as Nari Niketan. After a week, Yasmin Abrar came for inspection at Nari Niketan and met her and offered her a job as a maid at her home. After few days, Ahmed Patel came visiting and Yasmin Abrar asked her to give tea and water to the Congress leader. When she came to serve tea and water, Abrar left the room and Ahmed Patel raped her. In her complaint, she said that later the local Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Member of Parliament (MP) from Meerut also came and raped her and then she was also raped by many Congressmen when she was taken to Jaipur and Ajmer.

As usual Delhi Police kept quiet and Sunita Singh approached Delhi High Court. Her petition got rejected as Delhi Police said that they are probing the matter and needed more time (Sound familiar?!) By early 2006, she filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. But during the case, clearly, due to some settlement, she files an application to correct her petition. In the corrected petition she withdrew all men’s names including Ahmed Patel. She only mentioned that there were white dressed or Khadi dressed men. But in the corrected petition also she reiterated that the rape happened at NCW Member Yasmin Abrar’s home. Only Tribune newspaper had published this news[3]. The rest were silent on this development. At a later stage in the Supreme Court, by the end of 2006, she withdrew her appeal too. We are publishing the copy of Tribune report at the end of this article.

This is how rape allegations against the high profile men play out. How many media organizations covered these incidents? How many feminists and protestors acted on these incidents? None. The family of Sukanya Devi is missing till this day.

Fig 1. Tribune India article – Ahmed Patel’s name deleted

References:

[1] Rahul rape case based on ‘non-existent’ claim, says CBI – Sep 25, 2012, Indian Express

[2] Kishore Samrite vs State of U P & Ors on 18 Oct, 2012 – IndianKanoon.org

[3] Ahmed Patel’s name deleted – Jun 23, 2006, TribuneIndia.com