BSP legislator accused of rape

The minor girl has alleged that BSP legislator from Banda Purshottam Naresh raped her when she approached him for help a few days ago.

The girl also alleged that when she threatened to expose the legislator, the latter got her implicated in a false theft case and had her arrested.

The victim narrated her plight to her family members and others when she was brought by the police to the district court in Banda on Monday.

“I was severally beaten by the MLA’s goons when I threatened to expose his deeds. He also said that I would rot in the jail if I exposed him,” the minor girl alleged. According to reports the pradhan (village panchayat chief) of the girl’s village in Banda had sold her to someone and had been terrorising her father. The pradhan had also threatened her father with dire consequences, she alleged.

The girl had approached the local MLA with a request to save her from the clutches of the pradhan, when the latter took advantage of her situation and raped her. Local woman activists in Banda have embarked on an indefinite fast against the police inaction and demanding the MLA’s arrest. “The MLA must be arrested forthwith and proceeded against,’’
said Devmala Kushwaha, one of the activists. The opposition parties are also up in arms demanding action against the MLA.

The MLA, however, strongly denied the allegation and termed it as a conspiracy by his political opponents to tarnish his image. “The allegation is politically motivated. Iit smacks of a political conspiracy,’’ he claimed. Only recently a minister had to be sacked after he was charged with grabbing large tracts of government land, turning it into cremation ground and levying taxes on burning of bodies.