LUCKNOW Former minister Swami Prasad Maurya’s personal secretary and 12 others were booked for allegedly molesting a Dalit woman and attempting to murder her kin at an apartment in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar extension two days ago. An FIR was lodged with the Gomti Nagar police station on Monday in this connection and further probe was on, said police.
The woman, Bindu Sakal Ram, a resident of Sharda Apartments, alleged that Sajjad Ali Ansari alias Bablu, who also stays in the minister’s house in the same society, and 12 others attacked her brothers and trained a pistol with the intention to kill them. The accused even passed casteist remarks and threatened to outrage her modesty, she added.
The FIR was lodged under IPC sections 147 for unlawful assembly, 307 for attempt to murder, 323 for voluntarily causing hurt, 354 (B) for use of criminal force with intent to outrage the modesty of a woman, 506 for criminal intimidation as well as a section of the SC/ST Act for atrocities against Dalit community, said the police.
A senior police official said the woman even accused Ansari of being a member of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and engaging in ‘love jihad’, a term used by right wing groups for Muslim men marrying Hindu women after having a relationship with the intention of making them embrace another religion.
The woman also stated that she complained about the accused to the former minister, but he did not take any action, said cops.
{{/usCountry}}The woman also stated that she complained about the accused to the former minister, but he did not take any action, said cops.
{{/usCountry}}Former minister Swami Prasad Maurya said Ansari was not a member of his staff while the latter was not available for his comment over allegations levelled by the woman in the FIR.