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Uma Bharti Says She Made Policemen Torture Rapists When She Was CM

“The rapists should be hung upside down and beaten till their skin comes off."
Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Minister of Water Resources, Uma Bharti, said on Thursday that she has had rapists "tortured" and made them "beg for forgiveness" when she was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.

A video recording of her rally in Agra in Uttar Pradesh, while addressing the crowd, shows Bharti as saying, "When I was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, I once ordered policemen to hang the rapists upside down and beat them till they start crying for forgiveness."

"I even asked the victims to stand out and watch the accused cry because I believed that was the only way those women could find peace and satisfaction," Bharti adds.

Attacking the ruling Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi party in Uttar Pradesh, the union minister claimed that the UP government did not prevent the accused in the 2016 Bulandshahr gang rape from getting bail. Bharati was referring to the rape of a mother and daughter on a highway near Delhi.

"The rapists should be hung upside down and beaten till their skin comes off. Salt and chilly should be rubbed on their wounds," Bharti told the crowd.

She also said that when she was the chief minister, she had told the police that people who behave like "danavs" (demons) cannot have "manavadhikars" (human rights).

This is not the first time that Bharti has landed herself in controversy with her statements. In October last year, after India launched surgical strike on Pakistan, Bharti had said that those doubting the strike should take Pakistani citizenship.

"The leaders who are saying that they should produce the evidences of the strike to Pakistan should take the citizenship of Pakistan," Bharti had commented.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.