The Delhi Police have booked former BJP MLA Manoj Shokeen under sections 376 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly raping and intimidating his daughter-in-law at gunpoint. The incident in question took place on the intervening night of 31 December 2018 and 1 January 2019.
Deputy commissioner of police (Outer) Seju P. Kuruvilla, according to Asian Age, said, “We have initiated a probe in this regard and will take action as per law.”
Shokeen’s daughter-in-law, according to news agency IANS, had sought help from the police prompting the cops to file an FIR against the two-term BJP MLA from Delhi’s Nangloi assembly constituency.
The woman reportedly told the police that she was on her way to her in-laws’ place in Meera Bagh area from her maternal home. Also accompanying her were her husband, brother and a cousin. However, her husband took her to a hotel Paschim Vihar, where some of her relatives were already there to celebrate the New Year.
After the party her husband dropped her home and left with his friends. The woman said that she went to sleep until she was woken up by the knocking at the door by her her father-in-law. Shokeen, she claimed, said that he wanted to talk to her.
“After he entered the room, he started touching me inappropriately. Following which I asked him go off to sleep as he was drunk. However, he took out his gun, slapped me and threatened to kill my brother when I tried to raise an alarm. He then overpowered me and raped me. Initially in order to save the marriage and my brother, I stopped myself from filing a complaint against him,” IANS quoted the victim as narrating in her FIR.
She had also filed a case of domestic violence against her in-laws in the past at the Crimes Against Women cell in Saket Court.
Shokeen had lost the elections to AAP MLA Raghuvinder Shokeen by 37,024 votes in the assembly poll.
