In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, a senior party legislator has been accused of raping a lady teacher in Purnia district.
The 35-year-old teacher of a private school has alleged that BJP MLA Raj Kishore Kesri and his cohorts had raped her for more than three years, Purnia division's director inspector general Amit Kumar told PTI over the phone.
The victim had filed the FIR at Khazanchihat police station three days ago, he said. The rape charge against Kesri was being investigated by Khazanchihat police station in-charge Arvind Kumar, while the area DSP S S Thakur has been made the supervising officer in the high profile case, Kumar said.
Kesri rubbished the rape charges filed against him, saying he was being implicated in a "false" and "baseless" case which smacked of a "political conspiracy".
"The rape charge appears to be a handiwork of my adversaries to mar my prospect in the forthcoming assembly polls," Kesri said, adding that he was optimistic of getting justice.
This is the second time in the past three years that the MLA from Purnia constituency has been caught in controversy after he was implicated in a similar charge by another woman in 2008. He was then given a clean chit.
However, the BJP state leadership has rallied behind the embattled legislator with Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi defending him in public at a function during Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's 'Vishwas Yatra' in Purnia last week.
"The MLA's character and conduct have been impeccable during his entire political career," Modi had said.
Meanwhile, the chief minister has quietly distanced himself from Kesri during his Purnia visit and refused to share the dais with him at the public meeting last week, Janata Dal-United sources said.
The BJP MLA, who was seated on the dais, was quietly asked by senior officials accompanying Kumar, to vacate the platform from where the latter was to address a public meeting, they said.
