‘Rape’ case: New FIR against Cong MP for threatening survivor’s kin
Survivor’s husband complained to Sitapur SP Chakresh Mishra alleging that the MP was continuously issuing threats to his family to turn hostile in the rape case lodged against him
Another first information report (FIR) has been lodged against Congress MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur Rakesh Rathore, who is in jail on rape charges, and his woman aide with Sitapur City Kotwali police station for allegedly issuing threat to the survivor’s family, confirmed senior police officials on Friday.
The FIR was registered on the complaint of the 45-year-old survivor’s husband on February 14 itself but the information was made public on Thursday, officials aware of the development confirmed.
Inspector in-charge, Sitapur City Kotwali, Anoop Shukla said the rape survivor’s husband complained to Sitapur SP Chakresh Mishra alleging that the MP was continuously issuing threats to his family to turn hostile in the rape case lodged against him or be ready to face dire consequences.
“The complainant mentioned in the application that a woman named Reshma Khatoon visited his house on February 5 and issued threats to them that they will face dire consequences if they do not withdraw their allegations against the MP,” Shukla added.
“Similar threats through different people and medium have been regularly issued to his family members at the behest of the MP, who has influence in the region,” he said.
“Following his complaint, the FIR was registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) section 351 (2) (criminal intimidation) against Rakesh Rathore and Reshma Khatoon on February 14,” the cop added.
He said the BNS sections 333 (criminal house trespass for forcefully entering the complainant’s house) and 61 (2) (hatching criminal conspiracy against the rape survivor and her family) was later added to the case and further probe was in progress.
The MP was arrested while he was holding a press conference at his Sitapur residence to contradict the rape allegations on January 30 after remaining elusive for around two weeks after his attempt to get anticipatory bail foiled.
On January 29, the Sitapur MP/MLA court rejected the MP’s bail petition in the case. The MP has been lodged in Sitapur jail for the last 22 days and the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court is to hear his bail petition in the case on February 24.
On January 17, the survivor lodged the FIR against the MP under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 64 (rape), 351 (3) (criminal intimidation) and 327 (2) (threatening using a firearm) with Sitapur’s City Kotwali police station.
She alleged that Rathore had been sexually harassing her for the past four years on the promise of marrying her and building her political career.
