Bihar court issues NBW against sitting RJD MLA

A court here on Friday issued a non-bailable warrant against a sitting RJD MLA in a case relating to sexual abuse of a minor girl.

District and Sessions Judge R K Singh, who holds the charge of special POCSO court, issued the NBW against Sandes MLA Arun Yadav following an application filed by the district police.

"The MLA has been untraceable for some time even as a special investigating team has been conducting raids at his properties here and in Patna," Superintendent of Police of Bhojpur, Sushil Kumar, said at the district headquarters here.

"We have put his mobile phone on surveillance but it has been switched off for nearly 48 hours. Bodyguards provided to him by the police have also been withdrawn. We hope that with the NBW having been issued, he will surrender," he said.

The 12-year-old girl had alleged that a woman named Anita Devi took her to Patna under the pretext of getting her good education and employment, he said.

In her FIR lodged in July, the girl also claimed that she ran away from a rented house in Patna where she was lodged by Anita Devi and from where the kingpin of the racket Sanjay Paswan used to send her and other girls of her age to clients, the SP said.

Anita Devi was a divorcee who previously worked as a domestic help at the residence of the RJD MLA, and her associate Chhotu. They were caught hold of by the girl's brother and other family members and handed over to police.

Paswan was nabbed by police later.

In the mean time, a women's body took the girl to a magistrate where her statement was recorded under Section 164 Criminal Procedure Code. The girl claimed Yadav's official residence near the Secretariat in Patna was among the places she was sent and sexually abused, the SP said.

The RJD has been maintaining that the party MLA's name was being dragged into the case to malign its image.