The Uttarakhand Police on Tuesday registered a first information report against former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vinod Arya for allegedly attempting to sodomise his driver, PTI reported.

Vinod Arya is the father of Pulkit Arya, who is the main accused in the murder of a 19-year-old receptionist named Ankita Bhandari at a resort near Rishikesh in September.

The FIR on Tuesday was registered against the former politician at Haridwar’s Jawalapur police station on the basis of a complaint lodged by his driver.

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The driver was employed by Vinod Arya through OLX in November since he had to make frequent visits to Pauri in the ongoing case against his son, reported The Indian Express.

“Vinod Arya also provided him [driver] with a room at his Haridwar residence,” the station house officer of Jwalapur police station RK Saklani told the newspaper. “According to the complaint, on two to three occasions, Vinod called the driver to his room at night and asked him for a massage. The driver alleged that Vinod tried to molest him during the massage sessions.”

In November, when Vinod Arya was visiting his son in Pauri jail, he went inside with the lawyer and left their phone and wallet with the driver. The driver allegedly escaped and Vinod Arya accused the driver of taking Rs 25,000 with him, reported The Indian Express.

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Vinod Arya is booked under Sections 377 (unnatural offences), 511 (attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment), 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

On September 24, the BJP had expelled Vinod Arya, and his son Ankit Arya, after Pulkit Arya confessed to killing Bhandari. Vinod Arya, a senior party leader from Haridwar, was a former chairperson of Uttarakhand Mati Kala Board with the rank of state minister.