Modi minister accused of rape refuses to resign

• Victim wants to meet PM for 2 minutes
  
• Nothing has been proven yet, says Meenakshi Lekhi
  
• Meghwal only MP from Raj in Modi's cabinet
  
• Cong demonstrates at the BJP's headquarters

Jaipur: A 24-year-old married woman from Jaipur who says she was raped three years ago by Union Minister Nihal Chand Meghwal says she wants help getting "two minutes" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That plea was made through the media yesterday; she also said she is being alternately threatened and lured with a job offer to drop the case.

"Why should I resign?" Meghwal said. He has the support of his party. "No one can be protected because he is a minister," said senior leader Meenakshi Lekhi, adding, "but you can't falsely implicate someone. Nothing has been proven yet."

The allegation against the minister- who has been asked to appear in a court in Jaipur next month- has commissioned one of the first big scandals for the new government, with the opposition Congress and women's rights activists demanding his immediate removal. Meghwal, state minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, is the only parliamentarian from Rajasthan in Prime Minister Modi's cabinet. The woman says that in 2011, she was raped by a group of men including Meghwal, who was not a parliamentarian at the time.