Dhananjay Munde heaves a sigh of relief as Renu Sharma withdraws rape charge

Caught on the wrong foot, BJP now demands that Renu Sharma be booked under section 192 of IPC. BJP had demanded resignation of Dhananjay Munde and moved EC seeking to annul his membership for concealment of having a second wife.

@the_news_21

Mumbai: Embattled senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Minister for Social Justice Dhananjay Munde on Friday heaved a sigh of relief as Renu Sharma who leveled rape charge against the Minister announced that she was withdrawing the charges citing family reasons and politicization of the issue.

Caught on the wrong foot after having demanded the resignation of Dhananjay Munde, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vice president Chitra Wagh today demanded that the Mumbai Police book Renu Sharma under section 192 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for leveling false charges and wasting the time of the government machinery.

Senior BJP leader Dr Kirit Somaiya had also moved the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking the disqualification of membership of Dhananjay Munde from the Legislative Assembly on grounds of concealment of having second wife.

Reacting to the development, NCP president Sharad Pawar remarked “we had already said we need to go to the root of the allegation. No point in coming to a conclusion without ascertaining the truth. We were proved right”.

Also Read: Party’s decision to wait for truth to come was right: Sharad Pawar after woman withdraws rape complaint against Munde

Earlier in the day, Renu Sharma citing family reasons and politicization of the issue said that she was taking back the allegations and urged the Mumbai police not to register any case against Dhananjay Munde.

Demanding that a case be registered against Renu Sharma under section 192 of IPC, state BJP vice president Chitra Wagh remarked that first the allegations leveled were shocking and later the withdrawal of the charges too is shocking and hence the party had demanded the resignation of Dhananjay Munde.

Commenting on the withdrawal of the rape charge, the state BJP vice president remarked that the manner in which the rape charges are being withdrawn by the complainant has wider ramifications. Wagh added that people will tend to view the actual complainant with suspicion which is not good for the society. Hence the Mumbai Police now should book Renu Sharma under section 192 of the IPC (fabrication of false evidence).

Though Dhananjay Munde has not officially reacted to the latest developments, a week ago had taken to Facebook and clarified on the allegations. Dismissing the allegations as “blackmail”, he however did admit that he had a relationship by mutual understanding with one Karuna Sharma and had two children and had also given his name to the two children.

The controversy created a huge political storm as BJP leader Krushna Hegde and later Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Manish Dhuri too alleged that Renu Sharma had tried to honey-trap them. A similar case of honey-trap involving a Jet Airways employee Rizwan Qureshi and Renu Sharma had surfaced.