JOIN USRajnath asks Nagaland's CM to maintain order
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday reviewed the situation in Nagaland’s Dimapur where a mob lynched a rape suspect after dragging him out of jail even as questions were raised over claims by the state police.
Sources said Singh spoke to Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang and asked him to ensure law and order in the town.
“He has asked the Chief Minister to take strict action against the culprits. He also assured necessary assistance from the Centre,” a senior Home Ministry official said.
The shocking incident took place on Thursday after a protest rally attended by thousands of people against the rape of a young Naga woman turned out of control. Angry students and public forced into the district jail and managed to pull out the accused before lynching Syed Farid Khan (35).
Khan, who is suspected to be an illegal Bangladeshi migrant, was charged with raping the victim several times on February 23 and was arrested the following day following a complaint lodged by the victim.
Meanwhile, the brother of the rape suspect Jamal Uddin Khan alleged that medical reports showed that the woman had not been sexually assaulted. He also claimed that his brother had been made a scapegoat and framed by Naga groups.
“Is the Nagaland government running a jungle raj? The girl who filed the rape complaint was the cousin of my brother’s wife. Nagaland police have said that the medical reports say she was not raped. There are multiple members of our family serving in the Army. How could they have killed him claiming he was Bangladeshi? My brother was made a scapegoat,” Jamal was quoted by NDTV as saying.
Jamal also claimed that he and another brother Kamal Khan were currently serving in the Indian Army’s Assam regiment. Another brother, Iman Uddin Khan, was also in the Army and had been killed in the Kargil conflict in 1999, he said. Their father, Syed Hussain Khan, had retired from the Indian Air Force.
Jamal claimed that his family hailed from Assam’s Karimganj District. Doubts have also been raised over the events leading to the lynching, including questions over the unavailability of a medical report to confirm the rape of the victim.