BSP MLA held following allegations of rape

Noida, Jun 29 (UNI) The city police today arrested ruling Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Shri Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit following allegations of raping a college student in Etah district of Uttar Pradesh.

While Noida police claimed Guddu was arrested from a village in Gautam Buddha Nagar itself, sources said he was arrested from New Delhi where he had gone to meet Chief Minister Mayawati. Ms Mayawati is reported to be in Delhi today.

A BSc student from Kasganj in Etah had approached Ms Mayawati alleging that Guddu had made false promise of marriage. The Kasganj police had later lodged an FIR against the Debai MLA and one of the charges included rape.

''We had arrested the MLA from Noida and later handed him over to the Etah police,'' SSP (Noida) R K chaturvedi told reporters.

Guddu is a known history-sheeter (Number 10 A) of Sector 24 Police Station of Noida and an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) probe is on against him. He is allegedly involved in over two dozen cases of vehicle theft and cheating.

Recently, Guddu was also involved in an alleged case of cheating and a report was lodged in Sector 24 police station. He, and three others had allegedly collected Rs 11 crore as commission from the DLF by giving a fake allotment letter from the Noida Authority.

The MLA has been to jail once over charges of cycle theft.

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