Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Thursday filed a defamation case against a woman who accused him of raping her along with two others in 2008.
The woman had on February 15, the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited State capital Itanagar on an official programme, filed a complaint with National Commission for Women naming him among three who had gang-raped her in Tawang Circuit House 10 years ago.
“We take strong cognisance of the mala fide intentions of the complainant and her accomplices in irreversibly tarnishing the image and reputation of the Chief Minister,” a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said from Itanagar.
NCW, the CMO said, had dismissed the woman’s complaint on February 20.
“To put the record straight, the alleged crime was purportedly committed in 2008, when the present Chief Minister was a simple citizen holding no office in the government. However, a complaint was lodged with the police in December 2015 – seven years later – when he had become a Cabinet Minister in the Arunachal Pradesh government,” a CMO statement said.
“The timing of filing the complaint is highly questionable, as during that period of time dissidence within the ruling party government in Arunachal Pradesh was at its height and Mr. Khandu was one of the prominent leaders in the dissidence movement,” the statement added.
CMO officials said the complainant had in 2016 approached the court of chief judicial magistrate. The court concluded that her allegations held no merit and dismissed the case.
“The intentions of the complainant and her accomplices was to malign, tarnish and harm the reputation of Mr. Khandu by filing a police complaint in 2015 and approaching the NCW in 2018 for an incident that allegedly occurred in 2005,” the spokesperson said.
The Chief Minister, the CMO said, filed the defamation suit against the woman “not to gain any monetary or political mileage but to send a clear message” that truth and justice will prevail despite malicious intentions.
