The National Commission for Women on Thursday said that it has sought a detailed action report from the Maharashtra director general of police on an alleged rape case filed against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in 2013. The case was reportedly withdrawn by the complainant within days of its filing, according to the Hindustan Times.
The commission said it came across a media report on a Mumbai-based model who alleged that “she was not only raped by Hemant Soren and Suresh Nagre in 2013 but she and her family were also constantly threatened against speaking about the alleged incident in public”. The NCW also said that a viral letter, reportedly written by the model, had details of incidents that took place in the past seven years.
The matter was first highlighted by BJP MP from Godda, Nishikant Dubey, in July. Dubey had tweeted that the Jharkhand chief minister misused his office to settle the case. He said that such allegations against a chief minister were a cause of shame on democracy. “Mumbai Police should reinvestigate the matter,” Dubey had tweeted on July 28.
Soren had then filed a defamation suit against the BJP MP in August, seeking compensation of Rs 100 crore. In his complaint, the chief minister asserted that he has not settled any case with the model. “In fact, the plaintiff [Soren] was not aware of the purported complaint till the defendant [Dubey] tweeted and posted about the same,” Soren said in his complaint.
The chief minister also said that he had asked his lawyer in Mumbai to search the court records about the case. However, Soren said, the lawyer has not been able to provide any information because of the limited functioning of the court in view of the coronavirus pandemic and religious holidays.
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