New Delhi:
Just weeks after Haryana was reeling with a series of more than two dozen rapes in about a month's time, a state legislator has been booked for allegedly slapping a differently-abled woman who has told police that his nephew had raped her repeatedly.
The MLA, Dharampal Obra, belongs to the opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), is also charged with making casteist remarks against the victim and threatening her husband. His wife too has been named in the police complaint. The MLA has denied the allegations.
Mr Obra's party chief Om Prakash Chautala, also former Haryana chief minister, was hauled over the coals for backing a suggestion that girls should get married early to prevent rapes, when the state was rocked multiple sexual assaults last month. Most victims were minors.
The differently-abled victim has alleged that Mr Obra's nephew repeatedly raped her between October 2011 and February of this year while her husband was working in Rajasthan and also videographed the assault. He threatened to kill her if she told anyone. When her husband returned, she told him of the sustained assault on her. Police say that they were approached in May by the couple, who said that the MLA was threatening them and had also slapped her.
An FIR has now been filed against Mr Obra's nephew as well, but no arrests have been made so far.
The MLA's party, INLD, had demanded a special session of the Assembly to take up the issue of repeated rapes in the state.