CBI director Ranjit Sinha's 'rape' remark sparks outrage

NEW DELHI: CBI Director Ranjit Sinha's analogy on betting and rape has drawn harsh criticism, with political parties slamming him for his 'condemnable remark'. BJP Leader Smriti Irani said, "CBI director was not prompted nor pushed, he said what he believed to be his perception and that's condemnable."

Ranjit Sinha had said, "If you cannot enforce the ban on betting, it is like saying 'if you can't prevent rape, you enjoy it'". "If we can have lottery in states, if we can have casinos at holiday resorts. If the government can declare schemes of voluntary disclosure for black money, so what's the harm in legalising betting? Besides you'll have enforcement agencies to look into it," he said, adding that its easy to call for ban than to enforce it.

Within minutes of his remarks, which came at the end of a discussion on "ethics and integrity in sports" at a three-day CBI conference, senior bureau officials insisted Sinha had not meant to trivialize rape and that the entire context should be considered.

When asked by senior editor Shekhar Gupta on his views about legalising betting, Sinha, who was on the panel of a session "Ethics and integrity in sports--need for a law and role of CBI", said there was no harm in legalising betting in the country.

Later, CBI spokesperson gave a clarification saying the context in which the statement was made by Sinha was an opinion on legalising betting.

"A voice vote was taken from R M Sawani and cricketer Rahul Dravid and the Director, CBI, made a point if a law cannot be enforced, that does not mean that law should not be there".