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ITANAGAR: Police here on Monday registered a rape case against a Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Goruk Pordung from Arunachal Pradesh.
Goruk Pordung won his first Assembly election earlier this year during the simultaneous polls that took place for the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly from the Bameng Assembly Constituency, defeating incumbent, Kumar Waii who had joined the National Peoples Party after he was denied a BJP ticket.
Police said that the alleged rape happened on the night of October 12 in a city hotel here. A FIR was filed by a 30-year-old married doctor on October 13.
The victim in her complaint claimed that Pordung called her to the hotel on the pretext of discussing issues relating to the government primary health centre in his home constituency. She told the police that she went to meet him since he was a MLA and hence responsible. But instead she was allegedly raped. She added that Pordung was alone and had security personnel with him.
Speaking to the media, Capital Complex Superintendent of Police, Tumme Amo,said that the delay in registering the case was because a preliminary investigation was first carried out.
He said that since the victim in her complaint said that she had gone to the hotel on her own accord at around 10 pm, the police had to investigate whether she was raped.
Saying that the case will be thoroughly investigated, the SP said that the hotel staff in their statements confirmed that both the MLA and the victim had came to the hotel on that night.
However, it could not be ascertained whether they came together or separately since the hotel’s CCTV camera has not been functioning for the last two weeks.
Regarding Pordung’s detention or arrest on the basis of the FIR, the SP said that since the FIR has been registered “the legal process will take its own course”.
Meanwhile, the MLA in his defence has termed the allegation as being “politically motivated” to tarnish his reputation and has sought a “thorough investigation”.
Pordung, who is reportedly out of town, claimed that he knows the victim since she is his close friend’s wife. He also claimed that the woman had twice taken financial help from him and sometime later she had allegedly “seduced him.”
He also claimed that it was the woman who had “persistently” called him to meet her in a hotel here that night.
The BJP has not officially commented on the matter yet.
