Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Surendra Singh, who represents Bairia in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, on Saturday created a controversy by claiming that even Hindu god Ram would not have been able to stop incidents of rape, The Times of India reported.

“Such incidents can only be controlled by inculcating ‘sanskar’ [good values] among men, women and children and not through ‘samvidhan’ [constitution] of government,” Singh said. “The dreaded criminals are eliminated in police encounter, but ‘jism lootnewale’ [rapists] cannot be treated in a similar way. Such people are sent behind the bars.”

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(Credit: ANI News/YouTube)

The minister was responding to reporters’ questions on the case of alleged rape in Unnao. The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday filed its first chargesheet in connection with the death of a man whose daughter has accused Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of rape. Sengar’s brother, Atul Singh Sengar, is one of the five people named in the chargesheet.

The legislator is already in jail for allegedly raping the teenager in June 2017. In April, she tried to commit suicide outside Chief Minister Adityanath’s house. A day after the attempted suicide, her father died while in judicial custody after he was allegedly assaulted by the MLA’s brother.

Surendra Singh is known for making controversial statements. In April, he compared West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to Surpanakha, the mythological character from the Ramayana epic. Surpanakha was the sister of Ravana, the ruler of Lanka who had abducted Sita.