History sheeter and rapist, gets Z security; decides our fate
BSP MLA held on charges of rape
The Hindu, 30 June, 2008
LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party MLA from Dibai, Uttar Pradesh, Sri Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit, was arrested on Sunday on charges of fraud, illegal confinement and rape of an Agra University research scholar Sheetal Birla.
Ms. Birla lodged an FIR at the Kasganj police station in Kanshi Ram Nagar district. She alleged that the MLA had threatened to kill her after she distanced herself from him.
Contrary to reports that the MLA was arrested from the New Delhi residence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, the ADG, Law and Order, Brij Lal told journalists here that Sharma was arrested by the Gautam Buddha Nagar police at the Sector 24 police station in Noida. He said the MLA, who was being brought to Kanshi Ram Nagar, was arrested under Sections 156, 420, 497, 342, 504, 323 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code.
Guddu Pandit had won the Dibai seat in Bulandshahr district on a BSP ticket after defeating former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh’s son, Rajvir Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2007 Assembly polls.
He was once a close confidant of former Minister Amarmani Tripathi, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the Madhumita Shukla murder case.
Z security
The MLA had been given Z security by the Mayawati government.
Giving details of the FIR, the ADG said that Ms. Birla met the MLA at a marriage reception about two to three years ago after which they reportedly became close. Ms. Birla claimed that they got married at a temple about two years ago but she later came to know that Mr. Sharma was already married and had two children.
She alleged that she had been reduced to a mistress by the MLA. When Ms. Birla tried to keep away from him the MLA allegedly threatened to kill her. She alleged that the MLA raped and sexually exploited her.
Criminal cases
Mr. Lal said that earlier two criminal cases were filed against Ms. Birla and one Pramod Pathak, said to be her colleague, by Aditya Giri, a henchman of the MLA, in the Ahmedgarh and Ramghat police stations in May. The first case related to a land deal and the other to the theft of the MLA’s car.
Mr. Lal said that while Pramod Pathak was arrested at Shikohabad in Firozabad district on Saturday, the in-charge of the Ramghat police station, Mahesh Mishra, was suspended for his failure to verify whether the vehicle had been stolen or not.
Guddu Pandit is the third ruling party MLA along with Jamuna Prasad Nishad and Anand Sen Yadav to be arrested in the last one month. While Mr. Nishad has been jailed for his alleged involvement in the mob attack on the Maharajganj police station, Mr. Yadav is in jail for his alleged involvement in the Shashi abduction and murder case in Faizabad.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/30/stories/2008063056000100.htm
