Three people, including the wife of a Bharatiya Janata Party MLC, have been booked in Maharashtra’s Beed district for allegedly stripping and sexually assaulting a 40-year-old woman, reported Loksatta on Sunday.
Although the assault took place on October 15, a case was registered only on Saturday under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The complainant has alleged that Prajakta Dhas, the wife of legislator Suresh Dhas, attempted to forcibly take possession of her ancestral land with the help of her associates Rahul Jagdale and Raghav Pawar. She said that the Dhas and the two men came to her field when she, along with her husband and daughter-in-law, were engaged in agricultural activities.
Prajakta Dhas allegedly claimed that the land belonged to her, while the complainant asserted that it had been in her family for 65 years. Jagdali and Pawar assaulted her on the orders of Prajakta Dhas, she alleged in her complaint.
No arrests have so far been made in the case, reported The Indian Express.
Maharashtra State Commission for Women chief Rupali Chakankar has demanded swift police action. “I have personally sought details of the incident from the Beed police superintendent,” she wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Police have been directed to take appropriate action. The commission will follow up till the woman gets justice.”
Suresh Dhas has reportedly been under police scanner in a series of complaints of land grabbing religious places.
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