Days after fending off the controversy over sodomy allegations against its finance minister,the BJP in Madhya Pradesh finds itself in trouble over a two-year-old affidavit by a mystery woman accusing a senior party leader of sexually exploiting her for years. The Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission has given the police time till July 25 to locate the complainant on the basis of the Jabalpur address given in the affidavit. The woman had approached the panel saying the police were not registering her complaint against BJP general secretary (organisation) Arvind Menon who,she claimed,had exploited her after promising to marry her. For two years,the Jabalpur police kept telling the commission that they could not trace the woman. In another affidavit sent to the governors office,the complainant had expressed threat to her life. Unhappy with the replies,MPHRC acting chairman justice A K Saxena has now set the police a deadline. PCC chief Kantilal Bhuria wrote to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Saturday requesting a CBI probe in the matter. The Opposition has said it fears that the BJP could be behind the complainants disappearance. BJP MP chief Narendra Tomar,however,gave a clean chit to Menon,noting that the affidavit was two years old and that the police had already probed the matter and found the complaint to be fake. Menon himself has not reacted to the row so far. Jabalpur SP H N Mishra also said that earlier probes had revealed that no one by the name given in the affdavit lived on the provided address. Theres no trace of the complainant and she is not ready to come forward. How can people indulge in character assassination on the basis of an imaginary complainant? BJP vice-president Prabhat Jha said.
