LUCKNOW: After SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav's 'ladke to ladke hain' (boys are boys) remark about rapists, Uttar Pradesh Police has listed mobile phones, western culture and indecent dressing by women as reasons for rape.
In a bizarre response to a Right to Information query, certain police stations cited "mobile and internet culture, western influence and indecent dressing sense among women" as some of the reasons behind rise in rape cases.
Though RTI activist Lokesh Khurana could not be contacted, reports said a police station in Firozabad cited lack of entertainment option as a possible reason for rapes.
In some other districts, the local police blamed dressing sense of women and girls for men getting attracted towards them.
At a police station in Etawah, policemen blamed too much contact between boys and girls as one of the reasons.
Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) A Satish Ganesh told reporters today that as of now, the police headquarters had no information regarding any such report given by certain police station in reply to an RTI query.
He said report has been sought from zonal heads regarding the RTI reply given by certain police stations.
Ganesh said as part of the procedure, all applications seeking information under RTI are forwarded to the respective zonal IG.
After this, the police stations concerned send information sought directly to the applicant.
The IG said in August, Khurana had submitted an application and sought information from the RTI cell at the police headquarters on 10 points relating to measures for preventing rising rape cases and possible reasons behind such incidents. He said that as per the procedure, the application was forwarded to the police officers concerned.
Ganesh said there were 1,435 police stations in the state and what information they have given was not available with the state headquarters immediately. He said that there were some news reports regarding controversial information given by certain police stations.
These have been taken seriously and all zonal IGs have been asked to collect reports from all police station and submit the same.
The SP supremo had said at a party rally at Moradabad in April, "Rape ke liye phansi par chadha diya jaayega? Ladke to ladke hain. Galti ho jati hai" (Will boys be hanged for rape? Boys are boys. They commit mistakes.)
Mulayam had made the statement citing the example of a court sentencing three men found guilty of gang-raping two women in the abandoned Shakti Mills in Mumbai last year.
The reply to the RTI query has evoked sharp criticism from opposition parties which alleged that it proved their point that UP Police was insensitive.
"We had been saying this since long that UP police has become insensitive in its approach towrads women and girls," BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak alleged.
"There can be no better example of this than these RTI replies," he said.
Pathak alleged that there has been a spurt in crime against women during the SP regime and now police was justifying it by giving lame excuses.
Senior Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh said technology which could be used to improve law and order was being blamed for increasing crime.
"It is a strange argument. In reality the state police is trying to hide its own defects," he alleged.
"Instead of blaming the technology, which has put India on the world map during UPA's regime, the police should utilise it for better purpose," Singh said.