BSP MP moves bail application in rape case

BSP MP Dhananjay Singh Saturday moved bail application after the woman who accused him of raping her, denied the charge in a court here.

Singh moved his bail application before Additional Sessions Judge Sarita Birbal, who fixed the hearing for Monday.

Meanwhile, the recording of statement of the complainant was concluded. Testifying as a prosecution witness in the case, the victim, in an in-camera hearing, said that the accused had done nothing wrong with her.

The married railway employee, who lodged a rape case against the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP, told the court here Friday that she had deposed against the accused before a magistrate under pressure from relatives.

She has said that a case was lodged against the MP as she feared that he was interfering in her matrimonial life.

Telling the court that she was disturbed after her husband sent divorce papers to her by post in 2009, she stressed that nothing wrong was done with her by the accused.

Accused had not committed rape, she has said, adding that she does not want to depose against Dhananjay Singh.

Facing trial under various charges dealing with rape, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation, Dhananjay Singh, the MP from Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur, had been charge sheeted Jan 31 for allegedly repeatedly raping the woman between July 2005 and March 2009.

He was charged under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural offence), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

According to the complaint filed by the woman, the MP allegedly raped her at gunpoint and threatened her with dire consequences if she reported the matter, police said.

Dhananjay Singh's defence counsel S.P.M. Tripathi has denied the charges.

Police said the husband of the woman was a businessman and known to Dhananjay and through him, she first met the parliamentarian in February 2005.

Dhananjay and his wife Jagriti, a dental surgeon at a government hospital in Delhi, are in jail after they were arrested in November 2013 in connection with their maid's torture and murder case.