Woman dies, Peace Party chief booked

FOLLOWING THE death of a 22year-old woman at KGMU Trauma Centre in Lucknow, police on Saturday booked Peace Party chief and Khalilabad candidate Mohammad Ayub on charges of rape and culpable homicide. Ayub is MLA from Khalilabad in Sant Kabir Nagar, which will go to polls on Monday.

Police said the woman was admitted to the hospital on Thursday with kidney and liver ailments and died the next day. On Saturday, her brother lodged a complaint at Madiaon police station accusing Ayub of rape, criminal intimidation and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

SHO Nagesh Kumar Mishra said the woman, from Sant Kabir Nagar district, was studying nursing at a private institute in Lucknow. “The postmortem report has not been able to ascertain the cause of death,” he added.

According to the FIR, the brother alleged that during the 2012 UP polls, Ayub visited his house and asked his sister to campaign for him. Ayub had reportedly promised the woman that after winning the election, he would send her to Lucknow for studies and arrange a job for her. After winning the election, Ayub did send her to Lucknow for studies but reportedly started sexually harassing her.

The FIR added that Ayub used to threaten her. Later she developed stomach pain. Ayub allegedly gave her medicines, whichdamagedherliverandkidneys. On February 23, she was admitted at the hospital in Lucknow where she died the next day.

When contacted, Ayub denied the allegations, claiming that the FIR was politically motivated. “Six months ago, the woman visited my hospital for treatment of tuberculosis. She was given free treatment... later she stopped coming. Her family is playing into the hands of a political leader and making false allegations against me,” he said.