The Gujarat High Court quashed a rape case against former BJP MLA Jayanti Bhanushali on Tuesday, 7 August, after accepting the complainant's affidavit seeking withdrawal of the complaint as she has "settled the issue amicably" with him.
Justice P P Bhatt allowed Bhanushali's petition seeking quashing of the FIR in the case after the public prosecutor said the complainant had filed an affidavit to drop charges against him "without any coercion or undue influence".
The affidavit was submitted by the complainant, a 21- year-old woman from Surat, in the HC during the last hearing. Appearing in person before the HC on last Friday, during the first hearing on Bhanushali's petition, the woman had told the court she had "settled the issue amicably" with the accused.
The HC, during the last hearing, had asked the public prosecutor to instruct the investigating officer concerned to verify if the complainant had moved the affidavit out of coercion or undue influence.
In his petition, Bhanushali had claimed that there had been a "honey trap" against him by a gang led by one Manisha Goswami, who is now behind bars. Goswami had earlier tried to extort money from Sunil Bhanushali and his relative, but the latter approached the police and she was arrested, the petition said. To take revenge, the gang targeted him, the BJP leader had claimed in his plea.
The complainant had earlier alleged in the FIR lodged with the Surat police that Bhanushali raped her on several occasions between November 2017 and March 2018 after promising to get her admission in a reputed fashion design institute.
Bhanushali represented the Abdasa assembly constituency in Kutch district from 2007 to 2012. In the wake of the allegation, the 53-year-old leader had last month resigned from the post of the Gujarat BJP vice- president.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)