Four days after a woman lodged a molestation complaint against a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Chandra- who was earlier in the Congress- at Khatima police station, the accused is still on the run.
Informing this, the police station in-charge Chanchal Sharma said on Friday that they are on the lookout for him with the team, formed to nab him, conducting raids. Notably, the woman had said in her complaint lodged on May 8 that the BJP leader had attempted to molest her when she had demanded Rs seven lakhs given to the leader for securing a government job for one of her neighbours. She had further stated that the molestation attempt was made when she was left alone in her residence with her husband away in Delhi.
Speaking more of the matter, Sharma said that police had recovered CCTV footage from the house where the BJP leader had allegedly attempted to molest the complainant and they had been sent to Central Forensic Science laboratory, Chandigarh.Khatima Kotwali police had accordingly registered a complaint following which a case had been registered under the sections-452/376/420/506 of IPC in the police station following the direction of SSP.
Sharma further said that the members of the police team had recorded statement of the complainant before the magistrate after which her medical examination had been conducted. Things had followed after the complainant had met senior police officers and sought an independent inquiry into the matter. In her written complaint, the complainant had stated that a youth of her neighbourhood, working on a temporary basis in a cooperative society, had approached her to secure a government job with assistance from the BJP leader.
As per her allegation, the BJP leader had demanded Rs seven lakh for the purpose. As he had failed to secure the job she had demanded the amount back following which he had barged into her residence and attempted to molest her.
It is learnt that the accused leader had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly election 2012 on a Congress ticket from Khatima constituency. later, he had joined BJP after he had failed to secure a Congress ticket during the Assembly election 2017. Besides, the accused is the husband of a former block Pramukh, Khatima.
He had hogged the headlines recently after he had allegedly demanded protection money from a rice mill owner. As per the records, he is an accused of several cases of threatening people and administrative officers.