Kisan Social Army’s Ankur Sangwan, one of the prime accused in Tikri border gang rape case, on Wednesday surrendered in Bahadurgarh Court on Wednesday. He had a bounty of Rs 25,000 on his head. On police’s application, the court has sent him on remand. After he was produced in the court, he was sent to the jail. Ankur is a resident of Mandola in Charkhi, Dadri.
As per reports, Bahadurgarh DSP Pawan Kumar, a case of rape was registered at Bahadurgarh Police station in May 2021. The victim had eventually died of coronavirus. The victim’s father had told the SIT that his daughter stayed in the same tent of Kisan Social Army with Anoop Singh Chanot and Anil Malik. Where she was molested and raped. Chanot is an Aam Aadmi Party leader and one of the main leaders of Kisan Social Army along with Ankur Sangwan. On 30th April, the victim died at a private hospital in Bahadurgarh.
Police investigation has revealed that Anil Malik, AAP leader Anoop Singh Chanot and others molested the deceased victim and gang-raped her. Anil Malik has already been arrested while one more accused Jagdish is still absconding. Ankur, after surrendering in court, has said that he reached the Tikri border in November 2020 where along with his associates he started ‘Kisan Social Army’. Media outlets like Newslaundry had interviewed Kisan Social Army leaders including Chanot prior to rape case and gave them platform to abuse the ‘Godi media’ for not ‘showing true picture of farmer agitation’.
He had then gone to West Bengal during the elections where he met the victim as leader of Kisan Social Army. She, too, then joined the agitation at Delhi border. The victim had come from West Bengal on April 12 in a train to join the farmer’s protest where she was sexually assaulted. The victim who later got infected with the Covid-19 virus died at a private hospital in Bahadurgarh on April 30.
Professional protestor Yogendra Yadav, who is currently protesting on behalf of ‘farmers’, on May 10 admitted to how he knew about the sexual harassment faced by the woman as well as her possible kidnapping by the culprits but turned a blind eye. The victim’s father too had informed that Yadav was in touch with his daughter since April 24, before her death, and was aware of her predicament. However, he did not inform the police about the incident, which raised the question of whether he wanted to hide the misdeeds of the accused.
