New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against an Uttar Pradesh Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator and four other people who gang-raped a minor girl and then jailed her on a theft charge in Banda district, an official said Thursday.


The CBI has registered a criminal case against ruling BSP legislator Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi, the key person accused of holding the minor girl in illegal confinement, raping her and then getting her jailed on a theft charge in Banda district in December last year, the official said.

The CBI started the probe into the case on the direction of the Supreme Court Sep 12.

The apex court shifted the probe from state police to the CBI after the state government said it had no objection to the agency investigating the incident.

The legislator, who represents the ruling party from Banda, 180 km from Lucknow, was arrested Jan 13. His three associates were arrested a day earlier. The fourth accused surrendered before a local court Jan 18.

A lawyer who filed a public suit in the apex court said the girl was allegedly raped by Dwivedi in December 2010. She later spent about a month in jail, over an allegedly false theft case, and was released in January.

Dwivedi had got her arrested December 2010 on charges of stealing his licensed revolver, a mobile phone and Rs.5,000 in cash, the petition said.

Chief Minister Mayawati ordered Dwivedi's arrest after a preliminary report submitted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police confirmed that the teenaged girl was gang-raped.

"As per the preliminary report submitted by the CID, the girl was kept under illegal confinement for four days Dec 8-12, 2010. However, there was no sexual assault on her for the first three days, but on the night of Dec 11 and 12, she was raped twice, not only by the MLA but also by his cohorts," said a state government official.