Delhi court gives bail to MLA in Gurgaon rape case

BJP legislator and two others granted bail after victim retracts her statement

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday granted bail to BJP legislator from Gurgaon Umesh Agarwal and two others in a case of rape after the victim retracted her statement.

The 30-year-old woman had alleged that Agarwal and his friend, Sandeep Luthra, had raped her at a hotel in Faridabad on January 3. Another accomplice of Agarwal, Rekha Suri, had abetted the crime, the complainant had told the police in her initial statement.

Additional sessions judge Nivedita Anil Sharma also heard the deposition of the complainant, who resiled from her statement to police that the Gurgaon MLA had raped her.

During her examination, which was conducted in a closed court, the woman said that she had a monetary dispute with, Suri, who had borrowed over Rs. 50,000 from her last year and did not return it to her despite several reminders. The woman filed a complaint in this regard, sources said. On January 3, Suri met the woman in the hotel where she was supposed to return the money. That’s when the complainant met Agarwal, who gave Suri Rs. 1 lakh. But she refused to hand over the money to the complainant. When the two started to fight, Agarwal allegedly passed offensive comments, the woman said during the examination.

The woman also said after the incident, she got an anonymous call. This scared her and she approached the Hari Nagar police station, sources added. However, the complainant said she did not want any action taken against Agarwal and the others, sources said.

The court’s order on bail came after Agarwal’s lawyer Vaibhav Sharma pointed out that the sitting MLA had joined the investigation and had been co-operating with the police. The judge gave bail to Agarwal, Suri and Luthra, who furnished a personal bond of `25,000 and one surety of like amount each.

The prosecutor and DCW counsel Shubhra Mendiratta told the court that the woman was turning hostile and is likely to be cross-examined by the prosecutor later.

The court had earlier framed charges against Aggarwal and Luthra for alleged offences of rape, causing hurt by means of poison and criminal intimidation under the IPC. It had also framed charges against Suri for allegedly abetting the rape. The accused have denied the charges.