BENGALURU: A 40-year-old woman has filed a rape case against former Uttar Pradesh Shiv Sena MLA Bhagwan Sharma at the Kempegowda International Airport police station on Sunday. The victim alleged that the former MLA forced her to engage in sexual relations against her will and also threatened to kill her when she resisted.
The woman had been in a live-in relationship with Sharma since 2017, and the couple has a seven-year-old son. Police said they were living almost like a married couple, though their marriage was not legally registered.
According to the police, Sharma, a former MLA from the Debai Assembly constituency in Bulandshahr district, had visited Bengaluru on August 14 for business purposes along with his partner and their son. The family travelled to multiple places during the trip. On August 16, while returning from Chitradurga, they checked into a five-star hotel near Kempegowda International Airport, where Sharma allegedly pressured the woman into having sexual relations with him.
Based on her complaint, a case has been registered under Section 69 (sexual intercourse by employing deceitful means) and other section of the BNS, the police said.
A senior police officer told TNIE that preliminary investigation revealed the couple had earlier approached a police station in Uttar Pradesh over a domestic dispute.
During questioning, the victim alleged that the MLA had promised to marry her but sexually assaulted her. “They also quarrelled during their stay in Bengaluru,” the officer said, adding that further investigation is underway.