Rape charge a fashion: Shiv Sena

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena stoked a fresh controversy on Saturday by coming out in support of senior IPS officer Sunil Paraskar, who has been accused of rape by a 26-year-old model, claiming it has become a “fashion” to charge men with rape to seek personal revenge.

“Cases of charging men with molestation and rape in hi-fi societies to create hype is on the rise now. It has almost become a fashion. After he has served for so many years in the police force, one model now charges DIG Sunil Paraskar with rape, and in one night he becomes a villain. Such accusations have become good weapons to seek personal revenge,” the party said in an editorial Saamna, its mouthpiece.

It said, “In high society there has been increase in rape allegations, which are made to create sensation. The truth in these cases will come out, but the media trial before that is disgusting,” Saamna stated.

The BJP, a Shiv Sena ally, refused to support it on this issue. “It takes a woman a lot of guts to register a complaint, especially if she has been molested or raped and to suggest that she does it as a fashion statement is ridiculous. It calls for a change of mindset. It is clearly something that I condemn,” said the saffron party spokesperson Shaina NC.

The Congress termed the Saamna editorial “very shameful” and disrespectful of women.

“It is very shameful... I think there can be no words worse than this that can harm the respect of a woman. Which woman willsay that she has been raped, and there is also law of the land,” a Congress spokesperson said.