Nalanda rape victim fears for her life after accused MLA gets bail

The 15-year-old Nalanda rape victim, who accused RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav of assaulting her, has taken to Facebook to share her fears of further humiliation after Yadav was granted bail.

The 15-year-old Nalanda rape victim, who accused RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav of assaulting her, has taken to Facebook to share her fears of further humiliation after Yadav was granted bail.

Suspended RJD MLA Ballabh Yadav has been charged with raping a minor girl under POSCO Act. He was granted bail on October 2, 2016. (HT File Photo)

Despite the trauma, the teen had managed to appear for the Bihar state matriculation exam barely a month after the incident and scored first division marks. However, she took to the social media platform to say she feared for her life, and hoped chief minister Nitish Kumar would hear her.

“.. ka bail ho gaya….Ab wo to kuchh bhi kar sakta hai….ab to hume aur hamare parivar ko bhi maar sakta hai….police bhi usse darti hai…..humlog uske saamne kuchh nahin hain (He is out of jail... he can now do anything he wants, he can target my family, even the police fears him, we are nothing , against him),” she wrote in a message sent to some journalists, accusing Yadav of having sway over local police.

Yadav was released on Sunday from jail after spending nearly six months behind bars. He was suspended by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which he represented from Nawada, after reports of the rape allegations surfaced on February 13.

Read | Rape accused RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav surrenders after a month

When contacted, Nalanda police superintendent Kumar Ashish said “additional security forces” had been deployed to protect the victim and her family after Yadav’s release.

Yadav was accused of raping the schoolgirl at his official residence-cum-party office in Nawada on February 6. He was on the run for about a month before finally surrendering before a civil court in Nalanda, which booked him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

According to the victim’s FIR, her neighbour Sulekha Devi had taken her to an undisclosed location in Nalanda and forced her to have liquor, after which she was raped by a man, later identified as Yadav. After the rape, the woman allegedly offered her Rs 30,000.

In June, a local court framed charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code against Yadav and the other accused, including Radha Devi, Tusi Devi, Chhoti Devi and Sandeep Kumar.