Jalaun (UP); 16 January 2021 (UMMN): A 63-year-old BJP leader has been arrested on Wednesday on charges of sexual exploitation of two children.
Ram Bihari Rathore, the vice-president of the Bhartiya Janata Party’s Koanch tehsil unit and a former lekhpal’ (revenue record keeper) of the Uttar Pradesh government, may have sodomised more than 36 children as news on social media suggests.
Police also raided Rathore’s house and recovered a laptop, DVD and hard disk which also has some obscene videos of Rathore, said Jalaun Additional Superintendent of Police Avdhesh Singh.
Local Circle Officer, Rahul Pandey, said: “The victims — aged 15 and 16 years – told that Bihari used to sexually assault them after giving them cold drink laced with sedatives. Victims also said they were being harassed for the last two years.”
According to The Indian Express, Rathore used to record the sexual assaults through CCTV cameras installed in his room.
Rathore has since been expelled from the party.
A similar incident took place in UP’s Shukratal (30km from Muzaffarnagar) in July last year where a “Maharaj” spoken of as a 'godman', of an ashram, was arrested. Bhakti Bhushan Govind, the manager of the ashram, forced the children under his guardianship, to drink alcohol calling it “coronavirus medicine” watch porn and then sexually abuse them. If they refused they would be beaten up.
