New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Umang Singhar, a former state minister, who has been charged with rape and domestic violence, based on a complaint by his wife, says he has been framed. The Congress leader is also charged with unnatural sex and criminal intimidation in his native Dhar district, NDTV reported.
His wife also accused him of owning assets in the name of their house help’s husband. She alleged his involvement in the suicide of his live-in partner Sonia Bhardwaj, for which the MLA was charged in Bhopal a year ago. The MLA denied the charges and claimed that his wife had been blackmailing him.
“On November 2, I filed a police complaint against her for mentally harassing and blackmailing me. She threatened to frame me in a false case and demanded ₹ 10 crore. A case has been lodged,” he was quoted as saying. According to State Home Minister Narottam Mishra, the MLA has had “other wives” in the past.
“Former minister Umang Singhar’s wife has accused him of rape on the pretext of marriage and mental harassment. He had other wives in the past, according to the police. A case has been registered at Naugon police station,” NDTV quoted him as saying.
Singhar, a powerful tribal politician and a three-time MLA, is the nephew of former Chief Minister Jamuna Devi. He was the forest minister in the previous Kamal Nath government and currently represents the Gandhwani seat. In an internal feud in the Congress in 2019, the politician had accused party veteran Digvijaya Singh of running the government as a shadow Chief Minister, NDTV reported.
