IFS officer moves Delhi HC for anticipatory bail in rape case

The Delhi High Court has sought response from police on the anticipatory bail plea of an IFS officer, currently posted in China, in a case registered by a woman last year for allegedly raping her on the pretext of marriage.
Issuing notice to police, Justice Siddharth Mridul sought the reply by July 5 on the plea of the officer, a 2010 batch IFS officer who is currently a probationer in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and based in Beijing.
In his plea, the diplomat denied the allegations and said his Chinese language course at China Foreign Affairs University will be completed on July 11 after which he would join the investigation.

"The complaint is nothing but an abuse of the process of court and sheer harassment to the petitioner... The applicant may suffer an irreparable loss if he remains behind bars," the plea said.
Following the complaint, a trial court had ordered for registration of an FIR with the Vasant Vihar police station in December last year.
According to the complaint, the woman had met the officer on a social networking website in December 2010 and he had insisted her to have physical relation under the pretext of marriage.
The woman claimed that they had got married in a Kalkaji temple in October 2011 but he never wanted to make it public. He again married her at a Sanatan Dharam Mandir in GK-II on March 26 last year in the presence of her family members.

The woman, however, alleged that she got to know that "he had married another woman in February 2012 for dowry".