Varanasi: Newly elected Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Atul Rai, who has been accused of rape charges, surrendered at a court in Varanasi today. According to reports, the judicial magistrate has sent him to jail for 14 days on judicial remand. While surrendering, Rai was accompanied by hundreds of his supporters  who hurled slogans against his arrest. An FIR was registered against Rai on May 1 on a complaint by a college student who had alleged that he took her home on the pretext of meeting his wife but sexually assaulted her.

Rai, who has denied the rape allegations, had been on the run since the lodging of the FIR. The parliamentarian from the Ghosi constituency in Uttar Pradesh was declared absconder by the local court. The Supreme Court had on May 27 refused to grant Rai protection from arrest in the rape case while noting that 16 other criminal cases were pending against him.

Rai went absconding from the midst of his Lok Sabha campaign after FIR was logged against him. The BSP supremo Maywati, however, asked her party members to continue campaigning for him as she believed Rai was framed under political vendetta. She also addressed a meeting and extended support of Rai in Ghosi constituency.

After he was declared elected, Rai did not turn up in Parliament to take oath of office and the police, earlier this week, obtained permission from the court to attach his property. As per the parliamentary rules, a newly elected MP must take oath within 60 sittings of the Lok Sabha otherwise he may lose his membership. Rai won the Ghosi Lok Sabha seat, beating BJP’s Hari Narayan by 1.22 lakh votes in the just-concluded general elections.

Rai social media accounts show that he was active on Facebook till May 27. In his last video post after win in the Lok Sabha elections from Ghosi, the newly elected MP thanked people for voting for him and also stated that he has been acquitted by the people’s court.