A BJP leader was detained on Monday in connection with the rape of a 15-year-old girl at his hotel in Madhya Pradesh’s Tikamgarh district, police said.

The leader allegedly harboured and provided room in his hotel to two accused who abducted and sexually assaulted the minor girl at the establishment last year, an official said.

The BJP’s district unit chief, Saroj Rajput, has expelled the leader, Sanju Yadav, from the party’s primary membership and issued a statement to the press.

Sanju Yadav was a representative of a former Union Minister, it was stated.

“Yadav was taken into custody from the Civil Lines area while he was heading towards his hotel this afternoon,” Kotwali police station house officer (SHO) Inspector Pankaj Sharma told PTI.

He said the police are probing into Yadav’s role in concealing the sexual assault and providing a room in his hotel to the two accused, who raped the girl there a year ago.

Sharma said the girl, along with her family, on Saturday lodged a complaint against the accused, Rohit Sahu and Vishal Sahu, alleging that they forcibly took her to Yadav’s hotel and raped her a year ago.

The girl, in her complaint, alleged that the accused clicked obscene photos of her and were blackmailing her for money and had raped her repeatedly since then, he said.

A case was registered against the duo under sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (seduced to illicit intercourse), and 384 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

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