Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Bharatiya Janata Party's MLA from Bhadohi in eastern UP, Ravindra Nath Tripathi, his five sons and a nephew were booked in a case of gang rape on Wednesday. The FIR against the lawmaker and six others was lodged at Bhadohi Kotwali police station on the basis of a complaint filed by the survivor on February 9.

Following the submission of the complaint against Tripathi, his five sons, identified as Sachin, Deepak, Prakash, Chandrabhushan and Nitesh and also his nephew Sandeep, SP Bhadohi RB Singh asked an Additional SP to look into the charges.

On the basis of the report submitted by the ASP, the MLA and six others were booked under sections 376 D, 313, 504 and 506 of IPC, said the police sources.

As per SP Bhadohi, RB Singh, in the complaint filed by the survivor, the case dates six years back when she met MLA's nephew Sandeep in a train while returning to her native place Varanasi.

The survivor alleged that she came close to Sandeep, who on the assurance of marriage, raped her repeatedly in hotels at Bhadohi, Varanasi and Mumbai.

She also added that during the 2017 Assembly elections, she was kept in a hotel in Bahdohi and was raped by the MLA, his sons and nephew.

"The woman had given a written complaint in this regard a few days back and today we have registered an FIR in the case," he said. "A team has been set up to investigate the allegations. A case has been registered against all who were named in the complaint."

However, Tripathi refuted the rape charges saying he had no information in that connection.

"If someone has submitted an application, it is a matter of investigation," he said. "The SP and the Bhadohi District Magistrate have taken cognizance and an investigation is underway. I want to say that even if prima facie allegations are proved correct, my family and I are ready to be hanged."

Tripathi claimed he had been fighting against the land mafia and criminals of the region because of which he was being allegedly targeted by Gyanpur lawmaker Vijay Mishra, who had 78 criminal cases registered against him."The allegations against me are totally baseless and false; if any such act was done during the elections, why wasn’t it raised then?" he asked