Widowed Woman Accuses UP BJP MLA Ravindranath Tripathi, Six Others Of Rape
After Kuldeep Singh Sengar now another BJP lawmaker in the state is facing similar charges.A woman accused BJP MLA from Bhadohi, Ravindranath Tripathi and six others of raping her.?
"The woman, whose husband died in 2007, met MLA Ravindranath Tripathi's nephew in 2014. She said that she was physically exploited by him for many years on the pretext of marriage," Ram Badan Singh, Superintendent of Police, Bhadohi, was quoted as saying by ANI.?
"The woman further said that the MLA's nephew got her lodged in a Bhadohi hotel for about a month during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections where she was raped by the MLA and his family," said Singh.?
The case has been handed over to Additional Superintendent of Police.?
This comes at a time when the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh which has come under heavy criticism for shielding rape-accused MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar for long before he was finally expelled from the party.?
Last month, the Tis Hazari Court in Delhi which found the expelled BJP MLA guilty under the POCSO Act sentenced him to imprisonment for life. The Special CBI Court also imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on Sengar, out of which Rs 10 lakh will be given to the victim and remaining Rs 15 lakh to be settled towards prosecution expenses.
The four-time BJP MLA from Bangermau was charged under the POCSO Act under which sexual assault on a child below the age of 16 years is punishable with imprisonment between 20 years to life. The rape complainant was 17 years old in 2017 when the crime happened.?
This is not the only sexual assault case that the UP BJP leadership has to deal with.Another party strongman, former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand, is also facing an accusation of sexually abusing a law student.?
Chinmayanand who evaded arrest in the case for long even while the girl who had accused him rape was arrested on charges of extortion was finally taken into custody on September 20.?
The victim had also claimed that she had several videos ''exposing'' the ''sexual exploitation'' by the former union minister. Chinmayanand had alleged that the law student and her two friends tried to blackmail him by threatening to make the 'videos' public.?
Chinmayanand, whose trust runs the Shahjahanpur law college was booked under section 376-C of the IPC.He was granted bail in the case earlier this month. The law student had been granted bail by the Allahabad high court last month.
