Former BJP MLA from Mira-Bhayander in Thane, Narendra Mehta (48), has been booked for rape and illegal marriage and also under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Mumbai police on Thursday.
Mehta was booked after a local woman BJP corporator accused him of marrying her illegally at a Dahanu temple on June 13, 2001, and claimed he sired her son, who is now 16 years old, said Sandeep Kadam, a senior police inspector with the Mira Road police station.
The complaint alleges Mehta sexually and mentally harassed the woman for over 20 years since 1999, said police. Mehta’s accomplice Sanjay Thartare was also booked for allegedly threatening the woman against going to police in 2015. He had allegedly told the woman that Mehta was close to former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and advised her to settle in Dubai with her child instead.
Mehta was booked under Sections 376(2)(n)(rape), 496 (illegal marriage), 417 (cheating), 323, 504, 506 of the IPC and also under Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989.
“Both the accused are absconding and we are in search for them said Kadam,” said Kadam.
The case came to light after a video, allegedly circulated on social media by the complainant, narrating how she was abused by Mehta went viral, forcing Mehta to announce he was quitting the BJP and politics on Monday.
The woman claims Mehta used her for political gains during the 2009 state assembly polls. .
Prominent Shiv Sena leader Dr Neelam Gorhe, an MLC, had demanded stringent action against Mehta in the house as complaints of Mehta harassing women in the twin cities of Mira-Bhayander surfaced.
