Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ravindranath Tripathi and six others have been accused of rape by a woman on Monday, February 10. She has accused the seven of them of raping her in Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi.
‘The woman, whose husband died in 2007, met MLA Ravindranath Tripathi’s nephew in 2014. She said she was physically exploited by him for many years on the pretext of marriage,’ News18 quoted police official Ram Badan Singh as saying.
‘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,’ Singh added.
The case has now been handed over to the Additional Superintendent of Police and further investigation is underway.
A number of BJP MLAs and even cabinet members have earlier been accused and booked for rape and other sexual offences.
Among people who have been accused but not yet convicted are Swami Chinmayanand, Bhojpal Singh, Venkatesh Maurya and Nihal Chand. Others like Kuldeep Singh Sengar, Vijay Jolly, BJP Corporator Bhosale, Hamid Sardar and Pramod Gupta have been accused and convicted of rape and sentenced.
