A case has been filed against Uttar Pradesh minister and Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) president Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya’s wife, Bhanvi Kumari, and three others associated with a news channel in Lucknow. Bhanvi’s sister Sadhvi Singh filed a case of criminal conspiracy, defamation and insulting the dignity of a woman against the four on Monday at the Hazratganj police station, according to a PTI report.
The case was lodged under sections 500 (defamation), 509 (use of obscene or indecent words with intent to insult the dignity of a woman) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code based on Sadhvi’s complaint.
Allegedly, on August 28 a special programme was aired on the channel about the divorce of the brother-in-law Raghuraj Pratap Singh and his wife Bhanvi Singh. In the programme, several "objectionable allegations" were made regarding Sadhvi and the politician. Sadhvi stated in her complaint that there were various fabricated and false claims that were deliberately made against her as she and her sister have a dispute ongoing over ancestral property. She stated that her version wasn’t taken into consideration before airing the news piece.
"No one from the channel took my version of the allegations before running the news," she said.
Sadhvi warned that if no action was taken against the accused, she would be forced to take the extreme step of ending her life in order to protect her dignity. The police have said that the matter is under investigation, according to a PTI report.
Raghuraj Pratap Singh is also currently involved in a dispute with his wife.
Singh is a seven-term MLA from the Kunda constituency in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh. He had floated the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) and was elected to the Assembly in 2022. Earlier, he had contested elections as an independent and had also been a minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) governments in the state.