Ravindra Pandey (Gautam Dey)

Police on Sunday night lodged FIRs against Baghmara’s BJP MLA Dhullu Mahto and former Giridih BJP MP Ravindra Pandey over separate complaints lodged by two women of Katras.

The FIR against Mahto has been lodged under sections 376 (rape), 354 (assault to outrage a woman’s modesty) and 511 (attempt to commit offence) of the IPC on a party colleague’s complaint dated November 23.

The FIR against Pandey has been lodged on the complain of another Katras resident on November 24, 2018 under sections 376 and 511 of IPC.

“Action will be taken against the accused as per evidence after carrying out detailed investigation,” said senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kishor Kaushal.

Asked about the delay of more than 10 months in lodging the FIRs, the SSP said: “We will find out the reasons behind lodging of the FIR (late) after carrying out a proper enquiry and will take action if anybody is found responsible for deliberate delay in lodging the FIR.”

The BJP worker has alleged in online complaint that Mahto had called her on her mobile phone on November 15, 2018 and lured her to a trip to Bokaro and again asked her to meet him at the guesthouse of Hindustan Zinc factory at Tundu in Baghmara a week later and tried to grab her in the presence of BJP Katras unit worker Anand Sharma. She somehow escaped and informed her husband about the incident, according to the complaint.

The woman who has accused Pandey has alleged that the MP called her — through the husband of the woman who has complained against Mahto — at the house of BJP block president Vinay Kumar Singh on the pretext of arranging a job for her. When she reached there, the Giridih MP tried to grab her but she ran away, according to the complaint.

A day after the woman lodged the complaint against Mahto, the MLA had held a news meet in Dhanbad during which he charged Ravindra Pandey of conspiring to lodge a complaint against him out of political jealousy. A series of charges and counter charges followed ahead of the parliamentary election. Pandey and Mahto were both said to be vying for the Giridih ticket, which ultimately went to to Chandraprakash Chowdhury of the Ajsu Party in the NDA’s seat-sharing deal.

The FIRs on Mahto and Pandey follow the complainant against Mahto moving Jharkhand High Court against the delay in action against the MLA on her complaint to the police. On August 28, the high court directed the police to lodge an FIR against Mahto and also sought a report on the reasons for delay in lodging the FIR against him.