Within 72 hours of registration of case, Bhadohi police on Saturday gave a clean chit to local BJP MLA Ravindra Nath Tripathi in a gangrape case claiming that “no evidence” was found against him. However, they arrested his nephew and also accused Tripathi’s son of abusing and threatening the victim.

According to an official communiqué released by the DGP office, five others, who had also been named in the FIR lodged on Wednesday, were also absolved of rape charges by the district police. The FIR was registered against Tripathi and his kin on a complaint by a 40-year-old woman, who had alleged that they had raped her in 2017.

“During investigation, no evidence was found against the Bhadohi MLA and five others. They have been given a clean chit,” Superintendent of Police (SP) Ram Badan Singh told newspersons in Bhadohi.

“Tripathi’s nephew Sandeep Tiwari has been arrested on the charge of rape,” he said. Besides, Nitesh, son of the accused MLA who had been named in the FIR, has been booked for manhandling and abusing the woman,” the SP said.

After the woman’s statement was recorded before a magistrate, the probe was handed over to a two-member team, including women’s police station incharge Gulafsha.

The team failed to find any evidence to corroborate the charges, Singh said. The woman also refused to undergo medical examination, the SP added.

The complainant, a widow, had alleged that she was first raped by Tiwari in 2016. She said she did not lodge a complaint back then as Tiwari had promised to marry her. She alleged that in the run-up to the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, she was kept at a hotel for a month by Tiwari. All the seven accused would visit the hotel and repeatedly rape her. She also claimed that when she got pregnant, she was forced to undergo abortion.