Former Shia Board chief booked for allegedly raping ex-employee's wife
Wasim Rizvi, the former chief of Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board, has been booked for allegedly raping a woman. The woman, whose husband once used to work for Rizvi, had filed a complaint, after which a case was registered at a police station in Lucknow on Thursday. An investigation into the matter is currently underway. Here are more details on this.
Victim's family stayed in a quarter provided by Rizvi
At the time of the incident, the victim's family stayed in a quarter provided by Rizvi. She alleged that Rizvi would often send her husband out of Lucknow for work and would rape her in his absence. She said he also took indecent pictures of her and threatened to make them public if she decided to raise an alarm.
What are the allegations against Rizvi?
"About five months ago, my husband called me saying that he was going out of town for some work assigned by Rizvi," the woman said in her complaint. "That evening, around 10 pm, Rizvi knocked on my door saying he wanted to discuss something important with me. As I opened the door, he forcefully entered the quarter and started misbehaving with me...and raped me."
Victim told her husband about her ordeal last month
The complainant said she told her husband about the ordeal on June 11, after which he confronted Rizvi. Rizvi then confined her husband and beat him up, she alleged. "He would say he has connections with senior officers and that she will not be able to do anything to him," her complaint read, according to The Indian Express.
Rape case filed at Saadatganj Police station
Earlier this week, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate AK Srivastava ordered the Saadatganj Police in Lucknow to register a case and probe the allegations against Rizvi. He has since been booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 376 (rape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 392 (robbery). He, however, has denied the allegations.
Rizvi rejects allegations, says he had fired the ex-employee
Rizvi has denied the allegations, saying he had fired the said employee for allegedly leaking details of his whereabouts. "After I fired him, he started working elsewhere. Ten days later, his wife went to police station and filed this complaint. Police carried out initial investigation and and found nothing and hence did not file an FIR. Later, they approached court," he recently told OpIndia.
Rizvi's controversial past
Rizvi has often landed in controversy for his objectionable statements and the police cases filed against him. Earlier this year, he infamously filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking the removal of 26 verses from the Islamic text Quran, triggering protests. In the past, he has been named in several police cases on charges of corruption and promoting enmity.
