Sirsa, Haryana:
A woman from Rajasthan who had named union minister of state for chemicals and fertilizer Nihal Chand Meghwal and several others in a rape case four years ago has told NDTV that when she approached the police to lodge a complaint, they discouraged her and refused to file an FIR.
"The investigating officer told me that all they are all big people and hence there is no use fighting against them. They also told me to go back home and forget about the case," the woman said.
She has alleged that her husband, a property dealer with reported links to many junior politicians, repeatedly drugged her and then allowed his friends, among them Mr Meghwal, to rape her to further his political career. She has also alleged that her husband used to video record the assaults.
The Rajasthan police had, in 2012, closed the case saying the charges were false and fabricated. The woman then approached a district court which, too, dismissed the charges. She appealed, following which additional district judge Prem Prakash Gupta issued notices to Mr Meghwal and 17 others in this case on Thursday, asking them to respond by August 20.
The woman says that though an FIR was later lodged after a court intervened, the police probe was shoddy. Her statement wasn't recorded before a magistrate and nor was an identification parade of the accused organized, she has alleged.
The Congress has demanded the resignation of Mr Meghwal, 42, the only representative from Rajasthan in Mr Modi's council of ministers. But the BJP has ruled it out.