E-Paper
FIR against ex Uttarakhand minister for alleged sexual assault on staffer
The staffer further accused Arya of attacking him with a fork and threatened to kill him follwing which he registered a complaint at the Jwahar police station.
Former Uttarakhand minister and expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinod Arya was booked by the Uttarakhand police for allegedly sexually assaulting a staffer in Haridwar, police said on Wednesday.
Arya was expelled from the party in September this year after the murder of 19-year-old receptionist at a resort run by his son and key accused Pulkit Arya in Rishikesh.
Also Read: Woman found dead at Delhi flat; Murder case registered
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Haridwar Ajai Singh said they have begun a probe into the matter.
The incident allegedly took place on November 20 in Haridwar following which a complaint was registered by the staffer at Jwalapur police station on December 2, however, according to him, no action was taken by the police. He then sent a written complaint to the SSP office. According to the staffer, Vinod Arya also tried to kill him.
The 25-year-old staffer, who is a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, was quoted in the FIR as saying, “I was hired by the ex-state minister (Arya) on November 12 this year at a salary of ₹10,000 per month through OLX website. Arya also facilitated a room for my stay at his residence in Haridwar’s Arya Nagar. He would often call me for a massage in the evening and touch me inappropriately.”
On the day of the incident, he said, “On November 20 around 10.30 pm when he was giving massage to Arya, he tried to sodomise me. As I resisted, he said it was just a prank. The next day, I drove Arya and his son Pulkit’s lawyer to meet Pulkit in the jail near Devprayag where he is lodged. I dropped them both at the jail and went home.”
He in the complaint, the staffer further mentioned that when he had gone to the market to buy groceries, three men on bikes intenetionally hit him with the vehicle. “I suffered injuries on my head, my arm got fractured and I was admitted to a health facility in Fatehpur. Follwing the incident, I gave a complaint to the police on November 24.”
Also Read: 17-yr-old girl injured in Delhi after bike-borne men throw acid on her: Police
He added, “The next day, I received a phone call from Arya who asked me to meet him. I again received multiple calls from Arya on December 2 and he insisted on meeting. Around 4.30 pm on December 2, after I met him at his residence, Arya got my signature on plain paper and asked me for a picture, and subsequently threw me out of the house.”
The staffer further accused Arya of attacking him with a fork and threatened to kill him follwing which he again registered a complaint at the Jwalapur police station and sent a written complaint to the SSP after no action was taken by the police.
Finally, an FIR was registered on Tuesday evening against Vinod Arya under sections 377 (unnatural sex), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 307 (attempt to murder), of the Indian Penal Code.
