The alleged rape of a South Korean tourist at a resort owned by a ruling BJP MLA near the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh earlier this month has raised a political storm with leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Singh demanding a high-level probe into this incident on Friday.
The leader of the opposition in the Assembly has put the state government in the dock on the issue of crime against women after a 23-year-old South Korean student lodged a police complaint at a police station in Aurangabad in Maharashtra alleging that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by a hotel manager after she had returned from a safari in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve on January 14. The manager has been detained by the police.
According to Mr Ajay Singh, the alleged rape incident took place in the same resort which is said to be linked with the brutal death of a Bandhavgarh tigress (at Jhurjhura) that was fatally hit by a vehicle carrying tourists in May 2005.
In a statement Friday, Mr Singh said the state’s image will nosedive by the rape incident involving a foreign tourist. This would also leave an adverse impact on tourism industry, he said. When contacted a police officer at Aurangabad’s Kranti Chowk Police station in Maharashtra, where the FIR has been lodged, told this newspaper that the FIR has been transferred to the concerned police station in Umaria district. He said that a lady police officer from Maharashtra has gone to Umaria along with the rape victim. They reached Katni by train Friday evening and from there they were to proceed to Tala in Umaria by road. Attempts to contact the Umaria district SP M.S. Jamra failed.