The Uttar Pradesh CB-CID, on Thursday, filed a chargesheet against BSP MLA Purshottam Naresh Dwiwedi and four others in a Banda court for allegedly raping a dalit girl.
Meanwhile, the MLA’s wife, Asha Dwiwedi announced on Thursday that she and her family will commit suicide if the “conspiracy” against her husband was not exposed.
The move is apparently designed to mount pressure for the legislator’s release from jail and dilution of charges against him.
“My husband is 50 years old and is suffering from a kidney problem and hypertension. He is incapable of committing rape. Despite our requests, he was not medically examined to determine if at all he could rape a girl,” she said at a hurriedly-convened press conference here on Thursday.
Ms Dwiwedi said that Sheelu Nishad, the “so-called rape victim”, had accused her husband of rape only after the MLA’s political rivals prompted her to do so. Ms Dwiwedi said that the girl had not mentioned rape when she was arrested for theft in the presence of more than 500 people in the village.
The MLA has been charged with physical assault, torture, illegal detention/wrongful confinement, rape and molestation. The charges against the remaining four co-accused persons include physical assault, torture and intimidation.
Announcing this at a press conference here, UP chief minister Mayawati said that the state government will now appeal to the court to fast-track the case.
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SC receives judicial probe plea
S.S. Negi
New Delhi
Jan. 20: The Supreme Court on Thursday received another petition on the rape of a minor girl allegedly by a BSP MLA in Uttar Pradesh for judicial probe to bring within its ambit even the local judicial magistrate of Banda for sending the minor girl to jail.
The petition moved by a group of lawyers, led by D. Irudaya Nathan and Sanjay Gautam alleged that the judicial magistrate of Banda committed serious “illegality” by entertaining the theft case against the minor girl and remanding her to judicial custody “ignoring completely” the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, which prevented such hearing by him against a juvenile.