Wow, I am impressed! Not only was it a solomonic solution, but laced with a fine sense of humor too. Hey, these AGP types aren't the duffers as we might have thought :-).
cm At 10:18 AM -0400 8/31/02, Saurav Pathak wrote: >Rape battle ends in marriage >- Former Assam minister weds accuser, names son High Court > >MONIDEEPA CHOUDHURI AND SUSHANTA TALUKDAR > >Mushahary with son High Court. Picture by SH Patgiri >Guwahati, Aug. 30: Former Assam minister Rajendra Mushahary has >accepted Monila Brahma as his ?wife?, 18 months after the teenaged >girl gave birth to a child and accused him of rape and impregnation. > >The former AGP minister solemnised his wedding with Monila before >the marriage officer, Kamrup, under the Special Marriage Act on June >19. Mushahary categorically said: ?I am the father of Monila?s >child.? > >The DNA test that Mushahary took to clear his name last year, had >confirmed that he was the father of the child born to Monila on >October 23, 2000, at the Kokrajhar civil hospital. > >Mushahary, a widower, finally appeared to be a happy family man. He >said: ?After our marriage, we have renamed our son ?High Court?. All >that happened in the court has finally culminated in myself, Monila >and High Court becoming one happy family.? > >Now in his mid-forties, Mushahary was minister of state for the >welfare of plain tribes and backward classes in the Prafulla Kumar >Mahanta government. He was a powerful Asom Gana Parishad functionary >till Monila levelled the rape charge and the party was forced to >suspend him. > >Mushahary said he would have to wait for some more time before he >gets a ?clean chit? from the court. > >?I appeared in the chief judicial magistrate?s court in Kokrajhar on >Tuesday and since the case will be referred to the sessions court, I >am waiting for its summons,? he said. When the case comes up for >hearing, Monila will ?take back? her charge. > >After being released on bail, Mushahary had moved to a nondescript >location where he was tracked down by The Telegraph today. Monila >came to Mushahary?s residence on June 5 and they were married on >June 19. > >Maintaining that he was ?done in? by his political adversaries, >Mushahary claimed he had decided to tie the knot with Monila soon >after the 2001 May Assembly elections. ?Unfortunately, my >brothers-in-law jumped the gun in order to derive some benefits by >framing me in a false case,? Mushahary claimed. > >Mushahary said he harboured no ill will towards those who engineered >the smear campaign, which resulted in his suspension. > >?The All-Bodo Students? Union and the All-Bodo Women?s Welfare >Federation merely acted upon the feedback that they were provided by >Monila?s family. I do not blame them at all. I am happy now and >intend to bring up my son well. I will also make sure that he gets a >good education,? he said. > >The case had also drawn the attention of the National Human Rights >Commission that rapped former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta >for allowing the rape accused to continue as a minister. > >When Monila claimed that she was carrying Mushahary?s child as a >sequel to multiple incidents of rape, she was asked to undergo >medical tests. Subsequent confirmation of the supposed victim?s >pregnancy failed to perturb Mushahary, who threw an open challenge >to all and sundry to prove him guilty. > >According to the FIR lodged by Monila?s mother, Mushahary raped the >girl on two occasions, once in February 27, 2000 and again a month >later. > >The girl?s statement was recorded by a magistrate, a day after her >mother lodged the FIR at the Kokrajhar police station. > >The DNA report had said ?Rajendra Mushahary is the biological father >of the disputed child Pabitra (now named High Court).? > >The DNA test report was despatched to the forensic science >laboratory here in June last year and forwarded to the Kokrajhar >police, which was handling the case. The DNA profiling was carried >out under chief scientist at the CDFD, G.V. Rao. > >Samples for the DNA test were collected on June 7, 2001 from the >alleged rape victim, the child and Mushahary after months of legal >wrangling and claims and counter-claims. > >The police had to seek the court?s permission to go in for the DNA >test as the investigation had come to a ?dead end? despite claims by >Gossaigaon police of having gathered ?enough circumstantial >evidence?. > >The rape charge is also said to have played a role in Mushahary?s >defeat in the last Assembly elections. > >According to the victim?s claims she was raped first on February 27, >2000 and then again in March that year at a hotel in Warisa on the >Assam-Bengal border. However, an FIR was lodged against the minister >at the Gossaigaon police station only on September 4, six months >after the ?crime? was committed.
