Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Purshottam Dwivedi and his two security guards had raped a 17-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district, a preliminary report by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) revealed. The 17-year-old victim had accused Dwivedi and his henchmen of not only subjecting her to gangrape last month but also implicating her in a case of theft.
The report was submitted to the state government here Monday night. CID sleuths were understood to have arrived at this conclusion after recording statements of various people including cops of the local Banda police involved in shielding the legislator. chief minister Mayawati had entrusted CID with a probe into the case, while suspending the legislator and declaring that he would be expelled from the party and arrested if the CID held him guilty in its preliminary report.
While the government is still mulling over the action to be taken against Dwivedi, the Banda police is yet to register the rape victim's complaint. The CID's preliminary report, understood to be pending with cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh, is said to have also made it clear that Dwivedi had framed the victim in a case of theft after she managed to escape from his clutches and spilled the beans.
Dwivedi accused her of stealing his licensed revolver and Rs.5,000 from his house, for which she was lodged in jail in Banda. While the local police took prompt cognizance of Dwivedi's false complaint, it is yet to take any action on the victim's complaint of rape. According to sources, the chief minister has made up her mind to axe Dwivedi.
Meanwhile, the rape victim reiterated her charge against Dwivedi and his cohorts before the local civil judge Ravi Kumar in Banda Monday. The role of Banda superintendent of police A.K. Das was also under scrutiny as he tried to allegedly coerce the rape victim and her father not to name the legislator as the culprit. The CID team was understood to have pointed out that Das even violated the jail manual by forcing himself inside the prison cell where the victim was lodged without making the requisite entry in the jail register.
Earlier, in December 2008, another BSP legislator Shekhar Tiwari was involved in the murder of public works department executive engineer M.K. Gupta in Auraiya district on account of his refusal to meet the legislator's unending demand for money. Gupta's death was attributed to extortion by Tiwari who was on an overdrive to collect funds for chief minister Mayawati's birthday.