From correspondents in Uttar Pradesh, India, 11:00 AM IST

A Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader and his two aides have been booked for allegedly raping a 25-year-old married woman in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district, police said Saturday.

'BSP leader Sumer Singh, who is in charge of the party's affairs in the Nawabganj assembly constituency of Bareilly, along with two of his friends raped the woman after abducting her,' police Inspector Veer Singh Nayak told IANS on phone.

A case was registered against them Friday on the complaint of the victim's husband.

'While we have managed to arrest Singh's two friends, the BSP leader is yet to be traced,' Nayak said.

According to police, Singh and his two aides barged inside the house of the woman Thursday and abducted her. Then they forcibly administered alcohol to the woman and raped her at gunpoint.

'On the day of the incident, victim's husband Hafiz, who works as a labourer, had gone out of station for some work,' said Nayak.

The victim is undergoing treatment in a district hospital in Bareilly, about 250 km from Lucknow.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)