Bandi Sanjay
HYDERABAD: Girls from migrant Hindu families of Bengal are being drugged and exploited in pockets of Hyderabad’s Old City on AIMIM’s watch, Union junior home minister Bandi Sanjay alleged Sunday, days after slamming Asaduddin Owaisi’s party and Congress for what he claimed were attempts to “turn Telangana into an Islamic state”. “Hindus in West Bengal have no safety cover… Now, they are facing a similar situation in the Old City of Hyderabad too,” he said, termling these stories of alleged exploitation “The Hyderabad Files”.Sanjay said that he had already reached out to the families of women and girls allegedly targeted by men from “another community”. “Initially, they lured a girl from school to a Muslim classmate’s house under the guise of a birthday party, where she was offered chocolates laced with drugs… She was later kidnapped and assaulted for six days,” he said at a presser. “When the girl’s parents approached police, they were dismissed, and the case was closed without any investigation. The girl was later blackmailed with videos of the assault. She was even forced to bring her other friends.” Sanjay said the survivor named nine other girls who suffered similar abuse. “Hundreds of such incidents are going on right in the middle of the city without being reported. The local police are scared as they operate under pressure from AIMIM.” In one instance, the minister alleged, a minor was abducted by a gang of drug addicts. When she returned home and the family filed a police complaint, the case was “abruptly shut” without a proper investigation. “The girl is now battling addiction and exhibiting erratic behaviour. Despite having evidence, including CCTV footage, no action has been taken against the gang,” he said, displaying CCTV snapshots of two men allegedly trying to abduct a girl. Sanjay said that he knew the parents of one such alleged victim attempting suicide. He urged CM Revanth Reddy to take immediate action in all cases, failing which he warned that “Hindu protection squads” would be set up in the Old City. The minister also asked the CM to deploy “capable police officers”, free of political interference, to dismantle the alleged drug network. “What is the intelligence wing doing? The CM is also the state home minister…Is he only looking out for his family members and leaving the rest to feel unsafe?” he said. Officers at Charminar police station dismissed the minister’s allegations as false. “An investigation was conducted and the (abducted) girl was traced. But we didn’t find any evidence of sexual abuse. The girl had previously gone missing twice,” an officer said. “In the most recent case, the girl said she willfully went with the accused. But since she is a minor, a case of abduction has been registered against the person.” Governing Congress is yet to respond to the allegations.
