‘Filed fake rape FIR against MLA at BJP neta’s behest’

JABALPUR/BHOPAL: The journalism student who had accused Congress MLA Hemant Katare of abduction, rape and blackmail filed an affidavit in high court on Thursday to say that her FIRs were “fake” and that she was used as a “political tool” by BJP member Arvind Bhadoriya.

Katare had defeated Bhadoriya in an assembly bypoll for the Ater seat last year. Bhadoriya denied the accusation and said: “They are false and unfounded... I am prepared for a probe by any agency... It is a conspiracy against me. It was Katare who accused the girl of blackmail and she was arrested. They were together at Jabalpur today. What does it show?”


Pointing out that the girl had recorded her earlier accusations under CrPC Section 164 before a judge, Bhadoriya said, “The court will decide what to make of what she said earlier and now.” Two of Katare’s petitions in high court were to come up for hearing on Thursday but the hearing was deferred after the woman submitted the affidavit.

In her affidavit, she said that when she was lodged in Bhopal central jail after being arrested for extortion, her co-accused, Vikramjeet, came to meet her with a lawyer and two friends on January 27, 2018.

It can be ascertained from CCTV footage of the jail of that day, she said. She claimed Vikramjeet told her that he had come to meet her after talking to Bhadoriya. “I was told that my case would be fought, free of cost, by a lawyer who accompanied Vikramjeet,” she said.

According to the woman, after she signed the ‘vakalatnama’ given by Vikramjeet, she was told that she would have to file rape charges against Hemant Katare, but she refused. “After that I was harassed in prison and the lawyer persuaded me to do as directed… Or I’d have to remain in jail for three months. After days of harassment, I agreed,” she said.