Month after woman cried rape, SP leader, son booked

AURANGABAD

: The Cantonment police have booked Agra-based father-son duo, who are office bearers of the Samajwadi Party, for illegal confinement and rape of a woman.

The 20-year-old woman had lodged a complaint over a month ago against her former husband and father-in-law for illegally keeping her confined in their house for 44 days after she was divorced.

The woman has alleged in her complaint that during her confinement, both her former husband and his father raped her.

The suspects have been booked under

IPC

sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 (molestation), 376 (2) (B) for raping woman in custody, 377 (unnatural act), domestic violence and under sections of Dowry Prohibition Act 1961.

“We have registered a zero FIR and forwarded a copy to the

Agra

police chief,” acting city police commissioner

Milind Bharambe

told TOI on Wednesday.

The complainant said she was divorced on January 11 and kept in illegal confinement till February 23. The husband allegedly started abusing the woman and divorced her after she raised an objection to his alleged extra-marital affair, police said.

The woman, a pharmacist, was married to the suspect in May 2015. She claimed that besides Rs 40 lakh in dowry, her father had given her other valuables running into several lakh rupees. Her father-in-law had allegedly demanded Rs 1 crore more dowry.

The woman alleged that her father-in-law kept pestering her for bringing the remaining amount of money. Things took an ugly turn when she found that her husband had an extra-marital affair, following which her in-laws started torturing and assaulting her and eventually she got divorced, said police.

The woman has stated that after she refused to budge, she was forcibly taken to court and made to sign the divorce papers. Subsequently, she was brought back home. She further alleged that during her confinement, her husband raped her several times. Upon finding her alone, her father-in-law also raped her at gunpoint, she alleged.

After she told her husband about the incident, he forced her to give a statement that she was in an illicit relationship with his father and recorded the same on his mobile phone.

In the meanwhile, the woman’s husband got married to the woman with whom he allegedly had an extra-marital affair. When the complainant’s parents got to know about it, they reached the city.

It was only after several days of pleading that the suspects made the woman’s parents sign an agreement that they were taking back their daughter on their own and that did not have any complaint against her in-laws.

Fearing social stigma, the woman’s family did not lodge a complaint initially. However, the family mustered courage and reached out to the city police chief in the first week of March. A preliminary probe was carried out before filing a zero FIR and the case was transferred to Agra police.