Karnataka BJP leader booked in rape case

Bengaluru: Bengaluru Police have filed a case of rape against a BJP leader after a complaint was filed by a woman, police said on Tuesday. According to police, the accused, Somashekar J aka Gym Soma, a BJP leader, allegedly lured the victim to his room by promising a loan towards her marriage and committed the crime.

Ashokanagar police have filed the FIR and launched a hunt for the accused. The victim filed the complaint three months after the incident took place.

The 26-year-old victim in her complaint stated that she got introduced to the accused through a friend. The marriage was fixed for the victim last year and she had sought financial help from the accused Somashekar. The accused had agreed to give her Rs 6 lakh cash.

The victim alleged that Somashekar had picked up the victim from her PG hostel and took her to his flat on Langford Road in Bengaluru. He had allegedly forced her to consume alcohol and then raped her.

The victim has further alleged that the accused had later threatened her that if she spoke about the incident with anyone, he would finish her off and also



tarnish her image.

The police stated that Somashekar had unsuccessfully contested the 2018 Assembly election on a BJP ticket. Further investigation is on. More details are yet to emerge.

The development is a setback for the BJP in the State which has been in confrontation mode with the ruling Congress over a slew of issues. BJP MLA N Munirathna Naidu was jailed recently in connection with the alleged rape and honey-trapping case. He came out on bail after a month.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is probing the case. “The BJP MLA forced me to carry out honey traps. He had threatened to kill me to get this job done,” the victim stated in her complaint against Munirathna.

Former Congress MP DK Suresh, brother of Dy CM Shivakumar, alleged that Munirathna was trying to infect his adversaries with HIV and that the government should investigate the matter. Munirathna had refused allegations against him and maintained that it was a conspiracy to finish him off politically.