Abduction case against Chhattisgarh leader's son

RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh police have registered a case of abduction against Chhabindra Karma, son of senior Congress politician and leader of the opposition, Mahendra Karma, a police officer said on Thursday.

Police have registered the FIR on the complaint of a family of Dantewada town that Chhabindra, who is also president of Dantewada district panchayat, forced a girl to elope with him. Dantewada is some 380 km south of the state capital Raipur.

"A case has been registered against the district panchayat president and three others at Dantewada's City Kotwali police station for abducting a local girl April 22," Rahul Sharma, Dantewada district superintendent of police, told newspersons.

Sharma said: "The girl is an adult but the issue looks prima facie a criminal case on basis of preliminary investigation."

Chhabindra is already married.

Several Congress politicians describe him as a promising tribal leader of Dantewada district. But the girl's abduction case has discredited the Congress in Chhattisgarh.

Mahendra Karma, who represents the Maoist-infested Dantewada assembly seat, has sought "a fair probe" into the abduction case.

Congress sources said Karma is feeling embarrassed by his son's act as it came on the eve of party's national general secretary Rahul Gandhi's two-day tour of Chhattisgarh beginning Friday.