CHITRAKOOT : It is not only in the Gayatri Prajapati case that the woman who was allegedly raped by the UP minister is awaiting action by the law. Another case relating to the same woman is languishing in the pre-trial stage.
In this case, a local strongman reportedly having ties with SP leaders allegedly abused and threatened her because she had been highlighting corruption in the local Nagar Palika Nigam or municipal board.
Though a charge-sheet was filed in this case in October 2015, the UP police dragged their feet on filing an FIR despite the victim complaining to the DGP. Like in Prajapati’s case, there was pressure brought upon the woman to retract her complaint. But she stood her ground.
In a complaint lodged by the woman at the Karwi Kotwali police station (a copy of which is with New Indian Express), the woman stated that while she was returning home on the night of July 4, 2014, around 8.20 pm, a group of men led by Rajesh Karwaria alias Raju stopped their car beside her.
Rajesh Karwaria is the husband of Neelam Karwaria, who is the chairperson of the Chitrakoot Dham (Karwi) municipal board. After the local media pursued the matter, cases were registered under sections 354, 323, 504 and 506 of IPC against Karwaria and three others.
Karwaria is the president of the Ramayan Mela for Chitrakoot, a trust that receives funds from the State government to organise the mela. SP Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is said to have attended the mela two years ago at the invitation of Karwaria.
No sooner had the police registered cases, Karwaria, according to the woman’s lawyer Anand Mishra, approached the HC seeking quashing of the FIR. But the court ruled that no arrests should be made till the filing of the chargesheet. After a gap of over one year, the police finally filed the chargesheet.