Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Ravindra Nath Tripathi and six others in Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi district were booked on Wednesday for allegedly raping a woman multiple times over a month in 2017, reported PTI.
The complainant claimed that Tripathi’s nephew Sandeep Tiwari, who is one of the accused, first raped her in 2016, and continued to sexually exploit her. However, she did not approach the police then as Tiwari had promised to marry her, said Superintendent of Police Ram Badan Singh.
Ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the woman was allegedly kept in a hotel for a month and raped repeatedly by the seven accused. The others named in the FIR are Chandrabhushan Tripathi, Deepak Tiwari, Nitish Tiwari and Prakash Tiwari, according to NDTV.
The complainant claimed she got pregnant and was forced to go through an abortion, the police officer said. The investigations were conducted by Assistant Superintendent of Police Ravindra Verma, and the FIR was registered after his report at the Bhadohi city police station. The woman’s statement will be recorded in front of a magistrate, and further action will be taken, the official added.
Meanwhile, the BJP MLA has denied the allegations against him and claimed they were part of a political conspiracy. “I and my family are ready to be hanged if any of the allegations prove to be true after probe,” he said.
The woman, who is 40 years old, had filed a complaint on February 10, police said.
The incident occurred in the same year when expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar allegedly raped a teenager in Unnao district. A court in Delhi had on December 20 sentenced the former legislator to life imprisonment and also ordered him to pay Rs 25-lakh compensation to the complainant. On January 15, Sengar challenged his conviction in the Delhi High Court, which has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to respond. The court will hear the matter again on May 4.
Former BJP MP Chinmayanand was on February 5 released from Shahjahanpur prison in Uttar Pradesh, two days after the Allahabad High Court granted him bail in a case of alleged sexual harassment of a law student.
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