Woman alleges rape by Lok Janshakti party MP, police yet to register case

A police officer, who asked not to be named, said the woman, too, was a member of the party and the parliamentarian from Samastipur, Bihar, allegedly sexually assaulted her after promising to marry her.

A woman has filed a complaint at the Connaught Place police station alleging that she was raped by Lok Janshakti Party (LJP)’s member of Parliament (MP) Prince Raj Paswan on the pretext of marriage. The police on Wednesday said the alleged incident took place last year and added that an FIR is yet to be registered on her complaint, which was filed last week.

The police’s comments came a day after Prince’s cousin, Chirag Paswan, who was removed as chief of the party amid a feud in the family on Tuesday, shared on Twitter a letter dated March 29, 2021. (PTI Photo/Arun Sharma) (PTI)

A police officer, who asked not to be named, said the woman, too, was a member of the party and the parliamentarian from Samastipur, Bihar, allegedly sexually assaulted her after promising to marry her.

The police’s comments came a day after Prince’s cousin, Chirag Paswan, who was removed as chief of the party amid a feud in the family on Tuesday, shared on Twitter a letter dated March 29, 2021, which he wrote to his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, a party MP from Hajipur in Bihar, mentioning the rape allegations against his cousin.

In his letter, Chirag stated that the woman has been blackmailing Prince. Chirag wrote that when he did not receive any response from Pashupati on this matter, he had advised Prince to approach the police with a complaint about the alleged blackmail.

In February, Prince filed a complaint against the woman at the Parliament Street police station, in which he accused her of extortion and blackmail. The probe in that case is underway, the senior police officer said.

The officer said, “We received the woman’s complaint last week. We are conducting an inquiry and taking a legal opinion before proceeding further. The MP Prince Paswan had in February filed a case of extortion and blackmailing against the woman. We are probing that case too. No one has been arrested in that case.”

HT tried contacting Prince and Pashupati for their comment but their cellphones came as switched off. The officials, who answered calls to the landlines at their Delhi residences, said the leaders were currently in Patna.