Two Jubilee Hills gang rapists are majors: BJP MLA Raghunandan Rao

HYDERABAD: In a sensational claim, BJP MLA M. Raghunandan Rao on Sunday said two of the four accused in the Jubilee Hills gangrape case who were declared as minors, were in reality majors.

Raghunandan Rao alleged that the son of an MLA, and another accused who was listed as a minor, were actually majors and their purported age was determined based on fabricated Aadhaar cards.

“The police based their conclusions on these cards to declare the accused as minors so they can get away with lighter punishment. Their real ages will be exposed if their birth certificates from the hospitals they were born in, or from civic records, and their Class 10 certificates are verified,” he said.

Raghunandan Rao said it was up to the police to verify and check upon his allegations and he was ready to be summoned by the police if they wished to ask him questions relating to the case.

It may be recalled that it was his press conference during which he revealed a short video clip shot in a Mercedes Benz car used by the culprits in the case that forced the police to revisit its investigation following which they included the son of the MLA as Accused No 6. However, the police made it clear at that time that the MLA’s son was a minor, as were four others, and that only one person accused in the case was a major.

The BJP MLA’s sensational claims on Sunday are expected to lead to another political storm, with accusations that the police deliberately did not conduct a thorough investigation into the ages of the accused.