Seemingly annoyed over his name being repeatedly dragged in the rape charge controversy involving the BJP leader Harak Singh Rawat, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said on Wednesday during a Press conference that he had nothing to do with the case. “I have neither any relation with the woman who lodged the case nor have I ever contacted her on telephone. Can we trust the person who first made a rape allegation and recorded her statement before a judge and later withdrew the charge in a huffIJ We believe that the woman has an old relation with the BJP leader,” he said. After the case was registered, the Opposition had dubbed it as a politically-motivated move engineered at the behest of the State Government to denigrate the recently-inducted BJP leader ahead of the elections.
However, in a startling turn of things, the woman who had lodged an FIR against Harak Singh Rawat on the rape charge before Delhi Police on July 30 and had registered her statement before a magistrate under Section 164 had backtracked on her allegation on August 3, saying that she had been coerced to go for the allegation against Harak Singh Rawat under pressure from CM Harish Rawat.
CM Rawat said he wondered whether her earlier statement was right or the latest by which she withdrew her charge. “Making a charge on a serious matter like rape only to backtrack later is itself a serious issue. Things need a thorough probe,” the CM said.
Rawat added that the woman must clear things as to who the four people were who, she said, had approached her. “We do not mind her disclosing the names,” he said.
Reacting to the BJP State president and leader of Opposition Ajay Bhatt's allegation that she had made the rape allegation under pressure from CM Harish Rawat, the CM said he did not set any store by such vulgar politics. “The onus is on the BJP to prove it or withdraw it,” CM said.