While giving a clean chit to 32-year-old Mehtab Rana and three of his family members in the case of alleged kidnapping of a minor girl belonging to a different community after she denied their involvement in her statement before the court, the Agra police on Wednesday said that they would press harassment charges against Rana.

Rana’s wife and two sisters-in-law were arrested earlier on charges of keeping the kidnapped person in confinement.

They will, however, continue to remain in jail as police have now booked them as co-accused in the 2018 kidnapping case of the same girl.

According to police, the 16-year-old girl told the court that she went to Delhi with two youths – Gwalior-based Divyanshu and his friend Rinku – on February 23 this year to frame Rana as he had been allegedly harassing and threatening her to change her statement in the 2018 kidnapping case.

“On the basis of the girl’s statement in which she alleged harassment, a fresh case will be registered against Rana on charges of extortion and physical assault. We will also seek warrant against Rana’s wife and two sisters-in-law in the 2018 kidnapping case,” SP (Agra City) Botre Rohan Pramod said.

Three years ago, Rana was booked for kidnapping and raping the same girl. The girl was then recovered from Meerut and Rana was arrested. He was later released in 2019.

Meanwhile, police will move the court to seek Divyanshu’s custody. Divyanshu was arrested by Madhya Pradesh Police three days in another case of cybercrime.