Badlapur protests pretext to target Ladki Bahin Yojana, claims BJP's Chitra Wagh

Thane, Aug 23 (PTI) The opposition was using the sexual assault on two schoolgirls in Badlapur in Thane to target the women-centric Ladki Bahin Yojana of the Maharashtra government, BJP leader Chitra Wagh alleged on Friday.

Two girls were sexually assaulted allegedly by a sweeper in a school in Badalpur on August 11 and 12, triggering a massive protest in the area, which saw train services being disrupted for more than 10 hours on August 20.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi had called a 'bandh' across the state on Saturday, though it was withdrawn by the opposition alliance after the Bombay High Court said such a shutdown would be unconstitutional and asked the state government to take preventive steps.

"The protest is being used as a pretext to target the Ladki Bahin Yojana," said Wagh, who is president of the state BJP's Mahila Morcha.

"In the Badlapur case, police officers have been suspended and transferred, an SIT has been formed. The school's management has people from all parties but it is being portrayed as an institution with BJP links," she said.

Wagh alleged the protest in Badlapur on August 20 was helmed by those who were brought in from other areas.

The state government has accepted the request of the victims' parents to appoint Ujjwal Nikam as special public prosecutor but the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi was opposing it, she claimed.

Wagh also said eight women who were burnt alive in different cases during the chief ministerial tenure of Uddhav Thackeray received help only after the Eknath Shinde government came to power in 2022. PTI COR BNM