Mayawati defends minister accused of rape

October 20th, 2011 - 11:20 pm ICT by IANS  

Bahujan Samaj Party Lucknow, Oct 20 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Thursday dismissed the allegation of rape against Rural Development Minister Daddu Prasad, saying the charges were “false and baseless”.

“Evidently, the charge of rape against the minister appears to be the result of a conspiracy to defame both him and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government,” said Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh while addressing a press conference on behalf of the chief minister.

“The chief minister feels that the minister is absolutely innocent and such a wild allegation against him is politically motivated and clearly the handiwork of the frustrated opposition parties,” he said.

A woman Wednesday stated before a magistrate in Chitrakoot that while minister Daddu Prasad’s henchman Angad had been blackmailing her and subjecting her to sexual abuse since 2005, the minister himself raped her in 2007 when she approached him with request for a government job.

“If the woman’s charge of rape in 2005 were to be believed, then she must explain why she took six years to make the complaint; after all the BSP was not in power at that time and obviously Daddu Prasad was not a minister at that time,” the cabinet secretary said.

When the woman filed her first complaint Oct 16 before the Chitrakoot superintendent of police, she never mentioned the name of the minister, he said.

–Indo-Asian News service
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