Sodomy charge on ex-MP minister

A local court here on Monday ordered to book former Madhya Pradesh finance minister Raghavji under charges of sodomising his domestic servant.

Disposing of a petition filed in the case, special judge of Bhopal district court Justice D.K. Palliwal ordered to frame charges under Sections 377 (carnal intercourse against order of nature) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC against Raghabji for allegedly sodomising his servant Raj Kumar Dangi.

The court also directed to slap similar charges against two of the former minister’s servants, Sher Singh Chouhan and Suresh Singh Chouhan, dubbing as the co-accused in the crime.

The court has set August 12 as the next date of hearing in the case. The veteran former saffron leader had to resign from the ministry when a CD purportedly showing him sodomising the servant surfaced in 2013. Later, he was expelled from the BJP.

His servant had filed a FIR in the local police station here then accusing him of sexually abusing him with the promise of absorbing him in government job.

The victim had earlier narrated his ordeal before suspended BJP leader S.S. Pateria.

A forensic test on the CDs has confirmed that it was Raghavji who indulged in the act. In his FIR, Dangi had alleged that the former minister wanted him to undergo sex change to turn woman so that he could keep him as his wife.