Nitin Gadkari embroiled in scandal over death of child

From The Hindu & The Telegraph

THE HINDU A DISTRAUGHT FAMILY: Yogita Thakre’s mother Vimal with her two daughters Kiran (centre) and Nisha (left) at their home in Nagpur. Photo: Vivek Bendre

Nitin Gadkari, the leader of India's main opposition party is embroiled in a scandal over the death of a seven-year-old girl whose bruised and bloodied body was found in his car in the grounds of his home. 

Yogita Thakre, the daughter of a poor cleaner, went missing while her mother worked in a house opposite the home of Mr Gadkari, the president of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, in 2009.

She eventually discovered her dead body in Mr Gadkari's car after his security guards told her she was sleeping inside.

A potential scandal was avoided at the time when a police inquiry found she had suffocated in the car after becoming accidentally trapped inside by a faulty electronic locking system.

But the scandal returned to haunt Mr Gadkari and his party yesterday after the family and its supporters challenged the police findings and accused them of mounting a cover-up to protect the BJP leader and his associates.

They used India's Right to Information laws to uncover documents which, they claim, suggest police altered evidence and ignored statements to portray their daughter's murder in a sexual assault as an accidental death.