Hemant Katare, Congress MLA from Madhya Pradesh has been booked on charges of rape and abduction of a 21-year-old student of the Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism. As per reports, the student has filed a written complaint against the MLA.
The girl had accused that Katare had raped her at Juna, a gym owned by him. The girl’s mother had lodged a complaint about her daughter’s abduction by Katare. The police acted on the complaint and registered a case against Katare.
Earlier last week, the student was taken into custody after Hemant Katare had filed a complaint against her. He had alleged that the girl had threatened to circulate intimate videos of the two of them and wanted Rs 2 crore to be paid to her if he did not want the videos to be leaked. The MLA admitted that he knew her but had denied any relationships with her. He had alleged that he had finalised a deal for Rs 5 lakh and informed the police. The police had then arrested the girl from the parking lot of a hotel in Bhopal’s M P Nagar locality.
After the girl was arrested by the police, a video had surfaced in media where the girl was seen alleging that the MLA has been exploiting her and she has evidence of the same. The Congress MLA too had released a video where he alleged that the girl’s allegations were false.
The girl student’s bail plea was to be heard in court on Friday. But she filed a written complaint through jail superintendent in which she accused the MLA of rape. DIG Dharmendra Choudhry of Bhopal had stated that the student had accused Katare of rape and abduction. He said the police has sought permission from the court on Friday to record the complainant’s statement in jail.
The case has now given rise to political arguments and counter-allegations. The Congress party’s leader Ajay Singh had stated that the rape and abduction charges against Katare are a political conspiracy. Katare is said to be a close aide of Jyotiraditya Scindia. Hemant is the son of former opposition leader Satyadev Katare. Congress has said that the girl had an accomplice named Vikramjit Singh who had associations with BJP. They alleged that the girl bringing rape charges nine days after her own arrest means it is a political conspiracy to tarnish the image of Katare.