An IAS officer’s wife has accused Mritunjay Yadav, a close associate of former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, of raping her. IAS officer BB Biswas’ wife Champa Biswas alleged that Mritunjay, 27, and his friends raped not only her, but also her mother, her two maidservants, her sister-in-law and Biswas’ niece Kalyani.
They were “subjected to sexual exploitation with criminal coercion and intimidation, rapes with violence, seduction and inducements through promises of government jobs”, she stated in her complaint.
The 30-year-old Champa also claimed that she had undergone one abortion and subsequently opted for sterilisation “to avoid pregnancy due to repeated rape“. She expressed fears that Kalyani and two maidservants, who have since disappeared, may have committed suicide or been murdered. Acting on the complaint, the governor has requested the Union Home Ministry to take prompt action against the accused. At the state level, DGP (administration) Niyaz Ahmed has directed the police to conduct an inquiry.
The case has acquired political overtones not only because Mritunjay is an influential Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) activist who has even penned a hagiography of Laloo, but also because the Opposition BJP has taken up Champa’s cause.
It is said that Biswas could not protect his wife and other relatives from sexual exploitation. The IAS officer and his family moved to Delhi last November. According to his wife, she was raped for two years, Biswas himself got to know about it only in July last year. “He was in a fix and very perturbed and helpless,” says Champa in her complaint, suggesting that her husband’s life was in danger and therefore they had decided to shift to a safer place.
Mritunjay, refuted all the allegations levelled against him. The eldest of three sons of Hemlata Yadav – the chairperson of Bihar’s Social Welfare Advisory Board and a former MLA – he says he was “taken by surprise” at the allegations. “It is a political conspiracy against me and my mother,” he says. “It has been cooked up just to explain why Biswas has been absent from his job without authorisation.”
The trial court had convicted Mrityunjay Yadav of raping bureaucrat’s wife Champa Biswas and his mother. “A single-judge bench of Justice Mandhata Singh termed the allegation incorrect and found that the relationship between the two (Champa and Mrityunjay) was of consensual nature,” defence counsel S Verma told TOI.
Mrityunjay himself appeared bitter. “I do not know how to react. I was made a scapegoat in the battle of BJP, then in opposition, and ruling RJD,” he said.
