Jailed BSP MP Atul Rai booked under Gangster Act

Varanasi, Oct 24 (IANS) Atul Rai, the jailed Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP from Ghosi and one of his accomplices, have now been booked under the Gangster Act.

The Varanasi commissioner of police A.Satish Ganesh said, "Rai, who is in Naini jail of Prayagraj, is accused in many criminal cases. The process to book him under Gangster Act had been initiated by Lanka police for his involvement in several cases.

"A co-accused in the same cases Sujit Belwa, who is also in district jail of Varanasi, has also been booked under Gangster Act with him. Further action in this connection is in progress."

As per the police records, 21 criminal cases are lodged against Rai, who had already been booked under the Gangster Act twice in 2009 and again in 2011.

A total of 39 criminal cases are lodged against Belwa, who had also been booked under the Gangster Act and Goonda Act in the past.

Rai has been in jail since June 2019 after a woman filed a case against him with Lanka police station in May 2019 alleging he raped her at his apartment in March 2019 and also recorded a video.

Rai, who had filed nomination as a BSP candidate from Ghosi parliamentary seat, won the election as an absconder and later surrendered before the court on June 22, 2019.

The complainant and her companion, who was a prime witness in the rape case, had set themselves on fire outside the Supreme Court in New Delhi on August 17 after levelling serious allegations through live streaming on Facebook page against the police and other authorities, including DIG Amit Pathak, retired IG Amitabh Thakur and a judge of conspiring against her.

The witness succumbed to injuries at the RML hospital on August 21 while the companion died on August 24.

This incident had led to action and former Varanasi SSP Amit Pathak was attached to DGP headquarters by the state home department. He was accused of harassing them during his stint as Varanasi district police chief.

The in-charge of the Cantonment police station in Varanasi, Inspector Rakesh Singh and sub-inspector Girija shanker Yadav, were suspended in the same connection.

State government had formed an SIT to probe into the self-immolation case by the duo and on the basis of the report submitted by the two-member panel, retired IPS officer Amitabh Thakur was arrested in Lucknow.

A former circle officer of Bhelupur, Amaresh Baghel, who was charged for extending help to Rai in this rape case and sent to jail, was sacked from the police department recently.