Dehradun, 16 October
Uttarakhand’s Women and Child Development Minister Rekha Arya has filed a police complaint against her own husband, Girdhari Lal Sahu (also known as Pappu Girdhari). The FIR was registered late Thursday evening at the Cantonment police station in Dehradun.
She has accused him of beating her, using casteist abuses, forging her signature, cheating her, and even planning to kill her.
Arya, who is also the BJP MLA from Someshwar in Almora, posted a video on social media last night. In the video she was clearly emotional and said she was in a lot of pain, but she still had to do her duty. She also mentioned an audio recording that shook her badly. Soon after the video went up, her health worsened and she was admitted to a hospital in Dehradun for tests.
According to the complaint she submitted, she married Sahu on 6 July 2004 in Bareilly. At that time he told her he was unmarried. A few years later she found out he already had a wife and children from an earlier marriage. By then they had children of their own. Family members told her to stay quiet for the kids’ sake, so she did.
In the last few months, she says, things changed. She alleges he was having relationships with other women. When she confronted him, he first admitted it and even apologised in writing. But according to her, he didn’t stop. After she kept objecting, he started physically assaulting her, abusing her, and threatening to kill her. She also says that at her official residence he used casteist language against her in front of the staff. Arya belongs to a Scheduled Caste community and she has said he knew this from the beginning.
She has further accused him of forging her signature on papers to show she had resigned from the director’s post in some companies, even though she never signed anything or submitted any resignation.
The most serious part is the audio recording she claims to have. In it, she says, Sahu can be heard talking to a woman and discussing a plan to kill her. In the FIR she has written that she is scared for her life and for her minor children’s safety, and that he could do something at any time.
Police have registered the case under several sections of the IPC — including criminal conspiracy, causing hurt, cheating, forgery, cruelty by husband, criminal intimidation — and also under the SC/ST Atrocities Act. Inspector Santosh Singh Kunwar is handling the investigation. Police teams have started looking for Sahu.
Till now neither Sahu nor the state government has given any public response. The audio and the other allegations are still under investigation.
Opposition parties have demanded a proper inquiry and asked the government what steps it is taking to protect the minister.
The case is getting attention because the person who has come forward is the minister looking after women and child development. Many people are saying it takes a lot of courage to speak out after more than twenty years of marriage, especially when you are in public life.
The investigation is going on. More details will come out as the probe moves ahead.
Sources: Times of India, The Indian Express, India Today, Hindustan Times, LiveMint, Outlook India (reports from 15–16 October 2026)
@Rohit Manral
