Court formally charges BSP MP with rape

A court here Monday paved the way for trial of BSP's MP Dhananjay Singh for allegedly raping a woman over nearly four years.

Additional Sessions Judge Sarita Birbal framed the charges against Dhananjay Singh, the Bahujan Samaj Party's Lok Sabha member from from Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur, under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code relating to rape, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation.

The court fixed April 1 for recording of statements of prosecution witnesses.

The court dismissed his bail plea on the ground he could influence witnesses.

Delhi Police filed a charge sheet Jan 31 against Dhananjay Singh for allegedly repeatedly raping a 42-year-old married railway employee between July 2005 and March 2009.

The Lok Sabha member was charged under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural offence), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

According to the complaint filed by the woman, the MP allegedly raped her at gunpoint and threatened her with dire consequences if she reported the matter, police said.

Dhananjay Singh's defence counsel S.P.M. Tripathi denied the charges.

Police said the husband of the woman was a businessman and known to Dhananjay and through him, she first met the parliamentarian in February 2005.

Dhananjay and his wife Jagriti, a dental surgeon at a government hospital in Delhi, are in jail after they were arrested in November 2013 in connection with their maid's torture and murder case.