Maharajganj, Sep 18 (IANS): The police have arrested Masoom Raza Rahi, a former district president of the BJP’s Minority Morcha in connection with the alleged murder of his 55-year-old tenant in Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj.

The arrest came after the victim’s 23-year-old daughter told police that she was offered Rs 9 lakh to give a favourable statement for the accused in court.

Maharajganj superintendent of police Kaustubh said that 51-year-old Rahi was arrested from near the India-Nepal Sunauli border while trying to flee the country on Sunday.

“Based on the woman’s statement, Rahi was sent to judicial custody under the charges of murder, outraging modesty, house trespass, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The woman had also alleged that she was offered Rs 9 lakh to retract her statement,” the officer said.

The case began on September 5, when the woman said that her landlord had murdered her father. She had further alleged in the FIR that on August 28, the BJP leader had raped her and when her father protested, the accused thrashed him. But in her statement before the magistrate the woman had retracted all her previous claims.--IANSamita/dpb