By IANS,
Lucknow/New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government Sunday announced a crime branch inquiry into the arson attack on state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s house following her remarks on Chief Minister Mayawati. But the Congress demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the incident.
“Now, CB-CID (crime branch-criminal investigation department) would investigate the case,” Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told reporters in Lucknow Sunday.
Joshi’s house in Lucknow was set on fire Wednesday night allegedly by a group of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) workers because she made remarks that offended Mayawati both as a woman and a Dalit.
Joshi was arrested early Thursday and charged under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. She was granted bail by a Moradabad court Saturday.
Joshi has already apologised for her remarks and demanded that the probe into the arson attack onher house be conducted by the CBI. “I am sorry for what I said. My issue was right and it is a debatable one. The Uttar Pradesh government is very insensitive. They do not care for the women,” she told reporters in New Delhi Sunday.
“The probe should be done by the CBI,” she said. Joshi said she felt “embarrassed” after making those remarks but “the intention was not to demean any individual, forget about a caste”.
Joshi, who is in the national capital to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi, described the charges against her as “disproportionate and illegal”, and said she was “ready to go to jail a hundred times and will continue to fight for the poor, downtrodden and women’s rights”.
Congress general secretary and incharge of Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh said the Uttar Pradesh “police were there when BSP workers were torching Rita’s house. I don’t expect them to be fair.”
“Till the time the state government doesn’t recommend a CBI inquiry into the incident, Congress workers will keep pressing for it,” he told reporters in the capital.