FIR against Bihar IAS officer, former MLA for gangrape of UP lawyer

PATNA:  A senior IAS officer of Bihar cadre, Sanjeev Hans, and former RJD MLA Gulab Yadav have landed in trouble after an FIR was lodged against them on the directive of a Patna court in a gangrape case. While Hans is posted as principal secretary in state energy department, Yadav is a former legislator from Jhanjharpur in Madhubani district.

Hans and Yadav have been accused of raping a woman advocate of the Allahabad High Court in a Delhi hotel in 2021 after promising to make her a member of the Bihar women’s commission.  After hearing the petition filed by the victim’s lawyer, additional chief judicial magistrate of Danapur court on Saturday ordered the registration of a rape case against the two.

The court issued the directive after a preliminary investigation report was submitted by the police following a petition submitted to the court in 2021. Initially, the woman’s petition was dismissed by the court due to delay in submission of initial probe report by the police. The complainant then approached the Patna High Court, which ordered a re-hearing of the case, saying that the Patna Police has to submit the preliminary investigation report.

In its report, the police then said both Hans and Yadav were present at the hotel with the complainant at the time of the incident. The complaint also alleged that the then MLA Gulab Yadav raped her in his flat in Patna at pistol point and made a video of the act. He had allegedly asked her to visit his flat with a bio-data for recommending her name to the women’s panel. The complainant’s lawyer said initially the police kept silent on complaints made to police officers requesting registration of an FIR in the case.