BJP charges NCP men with rape

As Assembly polls inch closer, the Opposition has given momentum to murky charges against the ruling parties. Soon after a whistlestop tour of malnutrition hotspots in Maharashtra, the BJP has now charged four NCP activists with rape. BJP leader Eknath Khadse8212; who returned from a tour of north Maharashtra with a medicine bottle containing a cockroach to show the negligence in healthcare8212;now claims the NCP men are linked to four rape cases registered in Jalgaon.

On Monday, Khadse told reporters that he has met Home Minister R.R. Patil to urge him to order a CID probe into the cases which were reportedly registered in Jalgaon over the last month-and-a-half. He also claimed that seven women approached him with complaints, but only four registered them.

The NCP has dismissed the allegations as bogus.