Crime in UP: Five sodomy cases against former BJP leader in Jalaun

Three more cases of sodomy against a former BJP city vice-president have come to light, a day after he was arrested and sent to jail.

The police had arrested the accused, Ram Bihari Rathore, a retired revenue official from his house in Konch area of Jalaun district, two days ago, after parents of two minor boys lodged a complaint of sodomy against him.

His involvement in three more cases came to light on Thursday during investigation. Police suspect more cases will surface during the scrutiny of the hard disc, laptop and DVR seized from his house during a raid.

The accused is also said to be involved in running gambling and betting den at his house.

Rathore was also the BJP city vice-president of Konch before he relinquished the post in December last.

Rathore was sent to jail on Thursday after a case was lodged against him under sections 328, 377, 506 IPC, section 3/4 of POCSO Act and section 6/7 of IT Act.

SP Jalaun, Yashveer Singh, faced the anger of parents and kin of the victim who have demanded hanging of the accused.

The SP said that the police have found some explicit clips during initial scrutiny of the devices seized during the raid and a detailed analysis is being done by the cyber cell.

The SP said three more similar cases have surfaced, taking the total number to five so far while many more are likely to surface.

The matter came to light when on January 9, Rathore lodged a named complaint to police against one of the minor victims, alleging that the boy had stolen a digital video recorder (DVR) from his house.

During police investigation, the minor boy told the police that he had deliberately taken the device to hand it over to the police and reveal the shameful activities of Rathore.

"Rathore has been indulging in similar activities since 2017 apart from being also involved in running gambling den in his home. Irrespective of his political or social status, we will take appropriate action against him based on the investigations," SP Jalaun said.

Meanwhile, BJP Jalaun district president, Ramendra Singh Bana, said, "After I came to know about Rathore's misdeeds on Wednesday, I immediately got him out of the party though I was also informed by the city president that he had given his resignation a month earlier."

The case is similar to that of a junior engineer of UP irrigation department in Chitrakoot who was arrested by CBI in November last for sodomizing dozens of minors and selling their explicit videos on dark sites.