SP MP booked for assaulting woman

This is the second time in a month that an FIR has been registered on court orders against Maharaj, who was also elected to the Lok Sabha from Farrukhabad in 1996 and 1998. The village pradhan of Bagwala village in Etah lodged an FIR against the Lodh leader on May 20 alleging that he was intimidating villagers into selling their land to him for meagre amounts.

Many other cases have been registered in Etah against Maharaj, including a rape case brought against him by his adopted daughter Durga Bharati in 2000, the year he became a Rajya Sabha member.

The MP was in jail on those charges when he blamed the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of “directing the whole episode”. Maharaj had alleged a BJP lobby headed by Vajpayee wanted him dead and a deal worth Rs 1.5 crore had been reached to kill him.

‘‘A lady named Bhu Devi living in Etah’s Rani Avanti Bai Nagar approached the court complaining that the Rajya Sabha MP along with his private gunners assaulted her and threatened her with her life if she did not vacate her house,” SSP Etah Vijay Singh Meena said.

“As she refused to toe their line, the accused prepared forged documents to show that the house did not belong to her and forcibly occupied it. An FIR has now been registered at the Kotwali Nagar police station after court directions on charges of assault, threatening with life, criminal conspiracy and forgery,’’ he added.

The MP, who runs an ashram at Etah, could not be contacted for comments.