Gujarat police summon former BJP VP after woman accuses him of rape

Jayanti Bhanushali has denied the allegations, saying they were a political conspiracy against him by his rivals.

Jayanti Bhanushali, a former vice-president of BJP’s Gujarat unit, was on Monday summoned by the Surat police in connection with the rape and abduction charges filed against him by a 21-year-old woman.

Activists and students hold placards during a protest in a silent candle march over the rape case in Jammu on April 13, 2018. (AFP)

The police brought the woman from Surat to Ahmedabad on Monday and took her a luxury hotel near the airport where she was allegedly assaulted. The police recorded the woman and her mother’s statements. A medical test was done on her.

“Bhanushali has been served summons under CrPC section 160 to come and record his answers,” said a senior Surat police official.

According to FIR filed by the woman on July 19, Bhanushali allegedly told the woman he will help her in getting admission in a fashion design college and then raped her in a car in an agricultural field on the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar highway in November 2017.

She alleged Bhanushali’s assistant filmed the assault as an armed guard kept vigil. She said Bhanushali used the video clip to blackmail and rape her several times between November 2017 and April 2018. In April 2018, Bhanushali allegedly forced her to sign an affidavit that said she do not know him.

Bhanushali has denied the allegations, saying they were a political conspiracy against him by his rivals.