Delhi police has registered an FIR under IPC provisions relating to rape, criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence at Connaught Place Police Station against Prince Raj, the LJP MP from Samastipur in Bihar, on the basis of a complaint filed by a woman three months ago. The FIR also named LJP leader Chirag Paswan, who, the complaint alleged, conspired to delay action against his cousin Prince. The police lodged the FIR on September 9 on directions from a Delhi court, after the complainant approached it. Both Chirag and Prince did not respond to calls from The Indian Express seeking their version. Prince is one of the five LJP MPs who rebelled against Chirag's leadership in the party in June this year. On February 10, Prince had lodged an FIR of extortion against the complainant. “It has come to my knowledge that a woman has levelled some allegations against me. We had filed a complaint on February 10 itself and submitted all the evidence before the police,” he had then told The Indian Express. On June 17, he had tweeted, “I categorically deny any such claim or assertion that has been made against me. All such claims are blatantly false, fabricated, and are part of a larger criminal conspiracy to pressurise me professionally, and personally by threatening my reputation.” Advocate Sudesh Kumari Jethwa, representing the complainant, told The Indian Express, “We filed a complaint with Delhi Police in May and moved an application before a Delhi court in July. The court directed the police to lodge an FIR against MP Prince Raj and his cousin Chirag Paswan.” In her complaint, the woman, a former LJP officer-bearer, claimed she met Prince for the first time at the party office last year and they kept in touch. “I met him several times and in one such meeting, I picked up a water bottle from the table, but he said he would give me another bottle from inside. He gave me a glass of water and after consuming it, I fell unconscious,” she alleged. “I regained consciousness and found my head on his shoulder. He told me I was unwell and then I returned home. I questioned him again as to what had happened with me, he then showed me a video recorded by him,” she alleged. “He was making physical relations with me and he ensured that his face is not be visible in the video. He proposed marriage to me and threatened me that he would put it [the video] online.” The woman alleged she was scared and that Prince then started visiting her home at odd hours for a “physical relationship”. She claimed she informed party chief Chirag about it. “On January 15, I went to meet Chirag and after all the discussion, he pressured me into not filing the case against Prince and he was ready to resolve the matter. I left the party in February and when Prince came to know about the matter, he lodged an FIR against me,” she alleged.
