Sunil Tiwari, a close aide of BJP leader and Jharkhand’s first chief minister Babulal Marandi was arrested on Sunday morning for allegedly raping a minor tribal girl in Ranchi. Tiwari was arrested from a locality in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.
Tiwari has also been booked under sections of the ST/SC Atrocities Act. He was on the run since his plea for interim bail was rejected by a Ranchi court.
A tribal girl from Khunti, who worked as a domestic help at Tiwari’s Ashok Nagar residence, lodged an FIR with the Argora police station in Ranchi in August accusing Tiwari of sexual exploitation and coercion for sexual favours, The Telegraph reported. In her FIR, the girl has accused Tiwari of beating her up when she resisted his sexual advances. She also alleged that Tiwari threatened her to stay mum or face consequences.
The minor girl was victimised for the first time in March 2020, but she could not move out of Tiwari’s house due to Covid restrictions. After several months, she shared her ordeal with her family in Khunti and decided to lodge an FIR, police said.
“Three teams from Ranchi police were constituted to track and arrest Sunil Tiwari. He was arrested this morning from a locality somewhere between Agra and New Delhi. He will be brought to Ranchi once all formalities are completed in UP,” the newspaper quotes a top police official.
