Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) vice-president Brajesh Kumar alias Brajesh Pandey was on Monday booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for allegedly molesting the minor daughter of a former minister and fellow Congress leader, and for allegedly running a sex racket.

Automobile businessman Nikhil Priyadarshi is the main accused in the case, while his brother Manish Priyadarshi and friend Sanjeet Kumar Sharma are co-accused. The case was lodged at the SC/ ST police station in Patna on December 22 last year.

CID inspector-general (weaker section) Anil Kishore Yadav, confirming the inclusion of the BPCC vice-president's name as an accused in the case, told The Telegraph: "Brajesh's name has come in the supervision note submitted by the CID women's cell deputy superintendent of police, Mamta Kalyani, in the case. She found the charges against him to be true."

Anil refused to throw light on the present status of the case or reveal the future course of action. Junior police officers, however, asserted that efforts were on to track the absconding leader.

The incident allegedly occurred last year, when the minor, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste, accused Nikhil, the son of a former bureaucrat, of sexually exploiting her.

Nikhil's friends had allegedly blackmailed and exploited her. She also claimed that Nikhil and his acquaintances ran a sex racket. Finally, an FIR was lodged at the SC/ST police station in Patna.

Nikhil and the other accused have been absconding since then. A lower court in Patna recently rejected their anticipatory bail pleas.

Brajesh, who unsuccessfully contested the 2015 Assembly polls from Govindganj constituency in East Champaran, told The Telegraph over phone that he had not fled and was in Gorakhpur on some work.

He added that his opponents in the BJP were framing him in the case. "I came to Gorakhpur today (Monday) on personal work. I will return to Patna on February 25. My name was neither in the FIR nor in the girl's statement recorded in front of a magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. I have complete faith in the judiciary," Brajesh said.

The leader, however, accepted that he knew Nikhil and had met him over dinner "three or four times" and had also "seen" the victim at his house. "I had no idea about the case and came to know about it only through the media. That girl is like a daughter to me and I have not committed any wrong. This is a conspiracy against me. Nikhil is just an acquaintance and I have nothing to do with his activities," Brajesh added.

BPCC chief spokesperson H.K. Verma said: "Brajesh is a vice-president. I cannot speak on the matter. Our state president, Ashok Choudhary, is fit to talk about the case."

All attempts to contact Choudhary, who left for Varanasi in the afternoon, proved futile.