Will missing MP Atul Rai turn up to take oath?

NEW DELHI: Will Atul Rai turn up to take oath in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday? The question was being asked on the opening day of the monsoon session of Parliament as the newly elected Bahujan Samaj Party MP from Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh had been absconding for over a month since he was made an accused in a rape case.

Rai has not surrendered, although his anticipatory bail pleas have been rejected by courts including the Supreme Court. He won the Ghosi seat by a big margin, even though he did not campaign and was missing on both voting and results days, after the case was lodged against him in May. He was active on Facebook till May 24, though, when in his last video post after the Lok Sabha win he thanked people for choosing him.

“The public’s court is above any other court and the public’s court has proved me innocent. I will soon be free of legal proceedings…,” he said, promising voters that he would be available to them soon. In an earlier video, posted on May 20 after the polling, he had said the UP Police knew the truth of the “fake case” against him.


The BJP spokesman in UP, Rakesh Tripathi, said it was unfortunate that a “lawmaker was showing no faith in the law and not respecting the orders of the SC” while facing serious allegations like rape. “(BSP chief) Mayawati should ask her MP to surrender and submit before the law. His continued disregard of the law is reflecting poorly on Mayawati as well as the MP. Police has even begun proceedings of attaching his property,” he said.

The victim from Ballia had accused Rai of raping him in his house. “The woman has been unable to pinpoint my house or my flat when the police took her for identification,” Rai said in his Facebook post on May 20. Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had held a joint rally in Ghosi for Rai in his absence on May 15.