'Despicable example of criminally protected ideology': Rahul Gandhi on doctor's suicide in Maharashtra

Gandhi said, 'Some influential individuals associated with the BJP also attempted to pressure her into corruption.'

Mumbai: Days after the suicide by a 28-year-old lady doctor in Phaltan in Satara district, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi led the Opposition charge describing the incident as an institutional murder.

The incident exposes the inhumane and insensitive face of this BJP government, the Congress leader said in a post on X.

“That the doctor was driven to despair by rape and harassment, is a tragedy that shakes the conscience of any civilised society,” he said even as the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi-I.N.D.I.A. Opposition block continue to raise the issue in Maharashtra.

“A promising doctor, who aspired to alleviate the pain of others, became a victim of persecution by criminals entrenched in a corrupt system and power structure. The very authority tasked with protecting the public from criminals committed the most heinous crime against this innocent woman - rape and exploitation,” he said.

“According to reports, some influential individuals associated with the BJP also attempted to pressure her into corruption,” Gandhi said, hitting out at the ruling party and the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maha Yuti dispensation.

“This is the most despicable example of a criminally protected ideology. This is not a suicide - it is an institutional murder. When power becomes a shield for criminals, from whom can justice be expected?” he said, adding that the Congress stands with the family of the victim.