LUCKNOW, Aug 24: An incident of alleged rape is rocking the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. A Dalit woman was allegedly raped at Nehru Bhavan, the state headquarters of the party last week. The woman reportedly went back to her village in Gonda and no complaints were registered. The UPCC ordered an inquiry and suspended two office employees. No one in the Congress talked about it. On Monday, however, UPCC vice-president and former MP Harikesh Bahadur Singh submitted his resignation in indignation.In his resignation submitted to party chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday, the senior Congress leader pointed out that he was pained to see the state of affairs in the party office at Lucknow. He said he felt ashamed to continue as a functionary of the UP Congress Committee. ``This will be an insult to me if I continue in my post,'' Singh's resignation said.The Dalit woman, who belongs to Gonda, had come to meet UPCC president Salman Khursheed on Independence Day. Salman did not meet the woman and flew back to NewDelhi after attending a couple of functions.The woman was assured by three employees of the UPCC that the party chief would meet her. She waited till night and was allegedly raped repeatedly by the employees. The rapists fled in the morning while the women narrated her tale to the party leaders who came to the office. The woman was sent back to her village, an inquiry was ordered and two employees, Babulal and Om Prakash, were suspended. The UPCC leaders did not even register a case with the police.Party spokesman Ram Kumar Bhargava refused to comment on the incident while the other leaders tried to evade questions.The party pasted a notice on the board that none should remain in the party office after sunset. The local police station, Hussainganj, did not take notice of the incident because no complaint was lodged either by the victim or the party office. ``We act on complaints and in this case none approached us,'' said the SHO of Hussainganj.
