MP HC stays Katare’s arrest till March 6

Madhya Pradesh High Court has provided some relief to absconding Congress MLA Hemant Katare by staying his arrest till March 6 in a rape and kidnapping case.

During the hearing on Thursday, since the court found that there was shortage of time to complete the hearing, it directed the Bajria and Mahila police stations not to arrest Katare till March 6, unless the hearing is complete.

On Thursday, it took around two and a half hours for hearing of two pleas filed by Katare in the single bench court of Justice Rajeev Kumar Dubey in the High Court.

The hearing which started at around 2.30 pm continued till 4.50 pm. 

Senior Advocates Anil Khare, Ajay Gupta and Priyankush Jain pleaded on behalf of Katare. The advocates emphasized on the fact that FIR has been registered on the complaint of victim girl and her mother and as the complaint is baseless, FIR should be quashed. They presented tablet computer for prank and fabricated video but court denied screening of video in the court room after which request for reading of transcript was presented and after it was accepted the transcript was read out in the court room.

At 4.30 pm court’s time was over and an additional time of 20 minutes was provided by the court but even after the additional time hearing was not completed after which next hearing was scheduled on March 6 and based on the next hearing date Katare got relief.

The victim and her mother created ruckus in the court and abused Katare and claimed that if Katare would get relief today they would commit suicide after which court ordered police to remove both out of the court. Deputy AG Sanjay Dwivedi said that it is not possible to consider request over

section 482 of the CrPC as police investigation has not been completed. On the basis of facts provided application on section 482 of the CrPC.