MP: Cong MLA booked for rape on complaint of woman who claims to be his 'wife'

Police have registered a case against Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA and former minister Umang Singhar on charges of raping and assaulting a 38-year-old woman, a senior official said on Monday.

The Opposition legislator, however, rejected the rape-assault case as false and said it has been filed to ruin his political career.

The woman, also a Congress functionary, claimed to have married Singhar in April this year, while the legislator accused her of blackmailing him and demanding Rs 10 crore.

The case was lodged on Sunday evening at the Naugaon police station in Dhar city following a complaint by the woman, who claimed she was living with the accused as his 'wife' and alleged he sexually assaulted her, Dhar's Superintendent of Police (SP) Aditya Pratap Singh said.

SP Singh said the woman complained against the accused about physical torture, rape, abuse, committing unnatural act and threatening to kill her.

Based on her complaint, a first information report (FIR) was registered against the accused under Indian Penal Code Sections 294 (obscene act), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 376 (2 N) (rape), 377 (unnatural offences), 498 (A) (harassment of a woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation), the official said.

In the FIR, the woman, a resident of Jabalpur, said she met Singhar for the first time during a public programme. The MLA started talking to her over the phone, befriended and then established physical relations with her on the pretext of marriage, the complainant has alleged.

She said she threatened action when he started dilly-dallying over marriage, following which two got ''married'' in his Bhopal house on April 4, 2022, as per the FIR.

The complainant has alleged his behaviour changed after the marriage and he started abusing and harassing her physically and mentally and also threatened to kill her.

In the FIR, the complainant said she will also be killed like he did to another woman (name withheld) earlier. She has also claimed Singhar was trying to implicate her in a false case of forgery.

Meanwhile, Singhar, who represents the Gandhwani seat in the Assembly and is also a Congress national secretary, in a written statement, said he had submitted a complaint against the woman on November 2 for alleged blackmail and conspiracy.

Singhar, a tribal leader, said the woman had been asking for Rs 10 crore by threatening to file a police case against him, adding she was torturing him mentally and abusing him for the past several days.

The Congress MLA alleged she was blackmailing and entrapping him in a conspiracy and had lodged a false case to ruin his political career.

Meanwhile, a copy of the complaint that Singhar said he had lodged on November 2 surfaced on social media, and in the document he has called the woman his ''wife''.

In a video statement, Singhar termed it a conspiracy and said he wants leaders behind the episode to stop playing dirty politics with him.

''I had already submitted a complaint to the police about my mental and financial harassment. I have been facing this harassment for the past 4 to 6 months. No action was taken by the police on my complaint so far,'' he said.

Singhar claimed he was pushed to the brink of committing suicide, but decided to serve people, adding ''I will put my side in the court of law as I believe in the country's law''.

MP Congress Committee's media department chairman K K Mishra told PTI he does not have information about the case but, prima facie, it seems to be ''politically motivated''.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said the case was registered against Singhar on the complaint of his wife.

According to information given by police, the Congress legislator had other ''wives'' too, Mishra claimed.

''I have come to know through the media the victim who lodged the FIR against the Congress MLA is an office-bearer of the Congress and is currently holding various party posts,” he said, adding women are not safe in a party whose leader Priyanka Gandhi raises the slogan of 'ladki hoon lad sakti hoon' (I’m a girl, I can fight).