JAIPUR: The rape victim on whose complaint minister of state Babulal Nagar was booked a day earlier, alleged on Wednesday that she was now receiving threat calls from the Congress minister.

Even as the state police waited to begin investigating the rape allegations until the evening, the 27-year-old married woman told reporters that the minister and his accomplices were threatening since morning to exterminate her if she didn't withdraw the case. "They are threatening to kidnap my child. We are living in a fear," she said.

Chief minister Ashok Gehlot later said the Jaipur police commissioner has been asked to provide security to the woman, who lives with her husband and a son.

The state police's CID (crime branch) began the probe against the minister, who holds the portfolios of Khadi and dairy, more than 30 hours after a metropolitan magistrate's orders on Tuesday. The investigating officer, additional SP (CID, CB) V K Gaur recorded statements of the victim at her residence and took possession of the evidences, including the clothes she was wearing when Nagar assaulted.

As opposition BJP demanded that the minister be sacked, chief minister Gehlot said there would be no political interference in the police probe. "No one is above the law. There will be no interference in the probe, be it against anyone," chief minister Gehlot said on the sidelines of a programme to flag off Jaipur Metro. He, however, evaded questions on whether the minister would be asked to quit.

Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje accused the Gehlot government of failing to provide safety and security to the women. She asked why Nagar could not be sacked when Gehlot shunted out another of his ministers Mahipal Maderna on same charges two years ago.

