New Delhi/Ranchi, Dec 24 Jharkhand politics on Thursday witnessed turbulence after a video cropped up on social media alleging coercion by some BJP leaders, and the BJP in turn challenged Chief Minister Hemant Soren to file a case against them.
The matter pertains to the rape allegation made against Hemant Soren in 2013, when he was the Chief Minister.
The complaint was, however, withdrawn then but now sources say a petition has been filed in the Bombay High Court in the Soren matter.
In the video, the victim says: "BJP leaders Babu Lal Marandi, Nishikant Dubey and Sunil Tiwari and one Zahoor Alam are coercing me and blackmailing me."
In the unverified 38 second video she says: "I am fearing for my life, I have been subjected to defaming on social media and my character assassination is being done and if something happens to me these persons will be responsible. I have filed a complaint with the police. "
tried to contact the victim but she disconnected the phone when asked about this issue. Efforts to reach the CM's office also did not yield any result.
A complaint was filed by the victim on October 21, 2013, which was then withdrawn by her on October 30 the same year. A fresh case has been filed in the Bombay High Court by some unknown persons, sources said.
The video of the alleged victim was retweeted by Nishikant Dubey, the Jharkhand BJP MP from Godda.
Dubey challenged the Mumbai Police to act against him. "I take this challenge if Hemant Soren has the courage he can lodge a case against me and investigate. The public wants to know the truth about the 2013 case," he tweeted in Hindi.
However, highly placed sources in Jharkhand Police said, "They can act only if the victim files a complaint and will not take suo moto action on any unverified social media tweets and videos."
Sources in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha said these attempts are being made to destabilise the state government and pin down Hemant Soren, who is running a coalition government with the Congress. The Soren government is facing tough times and is more dependant on the Congress.
The JMM has to stick with the Congress if it has to survive in the state and run the government for a full five year-term.
However, sources in Jharkhand say the BJP is also facing internal rift since the merger of the JVM and Babulal Marandi's party, who got the Leader of the Opposition post pipping many BJP aspirants.
The Hemant Soren-led government is supported by the Congress, the NCP, the RJD and the CPI (ML). The number of the ruling coalition totals 50 in the 81-seated Assembly. The JMM has 29 MLAs and the Congress has 18, and the rest have one MLA each. The BJP has 26 and with the support of allies, the NDA 30 MLAs.
( With inputs from IANS )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor