SP MLA booked for murder of woman who had accused him of rape in 2013

Samajwadi Party (SP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Sultanpur Sadar Arun Verma has been booked under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after a 22-year-old woman who had accused him of rape in 2013 was found dead on Sunday.

The victim had left her home in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur district around 7.30 pm on February 11, telling her parents she would return in a few minutes. But when she did not come back the family contacted the police later that night and registered a First Information Report (FIR) at the local police station regarding her disappearance. Her body was found behind the boundary wall of Jaisinghpur primary school on Sunday morning with injury marks around her neck, indicating she had been strangled to death.

Sultanpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Pawan Kumar said that “doctors have also raised suspicion of poisoning” and that the police are “taking an opinion of forensic experts in the matter”.

The woman had filed a case against Verma and seven others accusing them of gangrape in 2013. However, during the investigation, it was found that Verma’s phone was in Lucknow at the time of the incident. Subsequently, his name was not included in the police charge sheet and his involvement in the case was ruled out.

In response to the allegations against him, Verma called it a political conspiracy and demanded an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the case.

Meanwhile, regardless of whether Verma was involved or not, CNN-News18 was quick to brand him a “rapist” MLA despite not being convicted by any court of law. Hey, but why go into legal nuances when there’s news to sensationalise, right?