Two Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh were booked for allegedly harassing a woman while they were travelling on an overnight train. A sexual harassment case was filed on Friday against the legislators after the woman alleged they were drunk, used abusive language and harassed her.
The errant legislators were identified as Sidharth Kushwaha and Sunil Saraf. Kushwaha is MLA from Satna city while Saraf represents Kotma assembly seat in the same district. 37-year-old Kushwaha is also president of OBC wing of the Madhya Pradesh Congress. He was also one of the mayoral candidates from Satna, but he lost the elections against the ruling BJP.
The alleged incident was reported on the intervening night of Thursday-Friday when they were travelling in a AC coach of Rewanchal Express (Rewa to Bhopal).
The woman alleged that the MLAs were drunk, used abusive language and harassed her during the journey.
Railway police swung into action after woman’s husband in a series of tweets, alerted railway police that his wife was travelling on a train from Rewa to Bhopal and two heavily drunk persons in the same compartment are misbehaving with his wife.
By the time train reached Sagar station, railway police arrived that particular compartment for checking. Later, the woman left her seat and shifted to another compartment, according to the police.
In her complaint, the victim stated that MLAs Siddhart Kushwaha and Sunil Sharaf boarded the train at Katni railway station. They were having their meal when she was sleeping on her berth in the same compartment. In between Ghatera and Sagar railway stations, the duo allegedly woke her up and forced her to have a meal with them. But as she refused, one of the MLAs held her hand and continued insistence on having food.
The complainant deboarded the train at Habibganj and filed a complaint at Habibganj police station. The FIR has been registered in Sagar government railway police station under section 354 of IPC, said a senior police official in Bhopal.
Additional Superintendent of Police Pratima Patel told press that the complainant was travelling with her infant in the AC compartment of Rewanchal Express.
Stating the claims to be false Congress MLA Siddharth Kushwaha said that they were standing at the gate of the train to Katni station.
“These allegations are baseless, nothing as such happened. She is speaking anything, what was she doing on our seat? Nothing from our end was done, only she can tell what happened. We were standing at the gate of the train till Katni”, he said.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Sunil Saraf said that they were dumbfounded by the woman’s claims adding, “When the police came, we came to know about allegations”.
MLA Sunil Saraf further added that there were other people on the train too but nobody said anything. The woman was sleeping on one of our berths. Her child was waking up due to a sound made by the door and she moved to another seat. When the police came, we came to know about the allegations.
MP CM Kamal Nath has formed a team to probe into the matter.
Further information on the matter is awaited.
Madhya Pradesh BJP president V.D. Sharma said that “the act of two Congress MLAs has exposed their real face”.
“Their leader Priyanka Gandhi says Ladki Hun Lad Sakti Hun, now I want to ask Priyanka Gandhi as to what action she would take against her party’s MLAs. I condemn this act and believe that the Congress leadership would take action against the two MLAs,” Sharma said.
