Indore, May 8: A woman councillor of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh's Indore removed a poster stuck on an autorickshaw encouraging the NOTA option during elections, saying that promotion of this voting option was not in the interest of democracy.
Councillor Sandhya Yadav's act drew the Congress' flak, which approached the Election Commission (EC) and lodged a complaint against her.
The Congress received a jolt in Indore after its candidate Akshay Kumar Bam withdrew his nomination on April 29, the last date of the withdrawal of nominations. Bam later joined the BJP, prompting the Congress to appeal to the people to press the NOTA (none of the above) option during polling in Indore on May 13 to teach the saffron party a lesson.
The Congress lodged a complaint with the EC after a video showing Yadav removing a poster of an organisation named Loktantra Bachao Samiti, asking people to support NOTA, surfaced on social media.
Asserting that she will continue to do so, BJP councillor Yadav told PTI that she fulfilled her "duty of being a conscious citizen" and removed the poster promoting NOTA from an autorickshaw.
She said that promoting this voting option is not in the interest of democracy.
While claiming that angry voters are running the NOTA campaign, state Congress committee general secretary Rakesh Singh Yadav alleged that Sandhya Yadav threatened the autorickshaw driver and forcibly removed the poster promoting the NOTA option from his three-wheeler and during this she was accompanied by some goons.
The Congress functionary said he has filed a complaint to the EC by submitting a video of the incident, urging it to take appropriate steps in this matter.
इंदौर में चल रही नोटा की लहर से बौखलाईं वार्ड क्रमांक-6 की भाजपा पार्षद संध्या यादव ऑटो रिक्शाओं से नोटा के बैनरों को जबरदस्ती निकलवा रही हैं।
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आठ लाख मतों से जीत का दावा करने वाली भाजपा में नोटा को लेकर आखिर इतनी बेचैनी और घबराहट क्यों है! pic.twitter.com/I0yTQsDVTT
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Lucknow/Pratapgarh (UP) (PTI): Police have apprehended a 16-year-old boy for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in a village here, officials said on Monday.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, said that the body of a 19-year-old woman was found hanging from a tree in an orchard in the Manikpur police station area on Sunday morning. A post-mortem examination subsequently confirmed that she had been raped.
Police registered a case against unidentified persons under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder) and 70(1) (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and initiated an investigation.
During the course of the investigation, the police found that the deceased was in contact with a juvenile who was also her relative.
Acting on this information, during a joint checking operation, sub-inspector Amit Kumar Singh of Manikpur police station and SOG In-charge Amit Kumar Chaurasia, along with their team, apprehended the 16-year-old near the Lehdari Ganga River bridge.
The search for other accused persons is ongoing, police said.
According to the police, the woman had gone to sleep after dinner on Saturday night but was found hanging in an orchard nearly 400 metres away from her home the following morning.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, had earlier said that the circumstances suggest foul play.
"The victim's slippers and undergarments were recovered 50 metres away from the spot where the body was found. There are visible injury marks on her body," Rai said.
While locals have alleged that the woman was murdered after being raped, the ASP said that it is "prima facie a case of murder."
"Based on the complaint filed by the victim's brother, a case of murder has been registered against unidentified persons," the officer added.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X in Hindi on Monday, said, "The news of the heinous murder of a Dalit daughter in Pratapgarh is deeply tragic and condemnable."
"The question remains: why does the spate of murders of 'PDA daughters' continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh? Are the BJP government's claims regarding women's safety merely hollow rhetoric, or is there, in fact, discrimination even in the provision of security for women?" he said.
"Whenever the 'wandering Honourable (ghumantu maananiye)' finds a moment of respite from election campaigning, he should cast a glance at the plight of the daughters of his own Uttar Pradesh. In any case, apart from injustice and oppression, no sister, daughter, or mother of this state holds any hope from you," Yadav added.
