After receiving criticism for his remarks on Delhi gang-rape victim Nirbhaya’s mother, Karnataka’s former Director General of Police (DGP) HT Sangliana on Saturday said that his statements were “twisted”.
Sangliana, a member of the ruling Congress in the southern state and a former Lok Sabha member had commented on Asha Devi at a public event on 9 March where women achievers were being honoured, the former DGP had said, “He had said: “When I look at her (Devi), her physique is very, very nice. How beautiful Nirbhaya could have been, if her mother is so well-made by god”.
Sangliana said , “I’m sorry that my statements have been twisted. I meant that Nirbhaya’s (name by which the 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim is known) mother looks very smart and good in her physique. Her daughter, Nirbhaya, must have also been a beautiful girl. I think that beautiful people need protection so they don’t become victims in the future,” Sangliana told the media.
His statement was meant only as a “compliment” and to highlight the need for protection for women, he said.
“I think people are making an issue out of a non-issue.”
The gang-rape of the 23-year-old student Nirbhaya in Delhi on December 16, 2012, by a group of six men, caught international attention after she succumbed to injuries.
(with agency inputs)