Dhullu’s bail plea in sexual assault case rejected

Sindri: After securing bail in more than half a dozen cases of extortion and murderous attacks, BJP’s Baghmara MLA Dhullu Mahto’s dream of coming out of jail suffered a setback on Wednesday when the court of additional district and sessions court III-cum-special court for offenses against women of Dhanbad rejected his bail plea in a case related to a sexual assault.
With the plea rejected, the legislator, behind bars since May 11 after he surrendered before the court in a separate case, will vote for the Rajya Sabha elections from judicial custody..
Pleading for Mahto, his advocates S N Mukherjee, Radheshyam Goswami and N K Savita said he has been implicated in a false case on behest of his political rivals and that the complainant (a female BJP functionary) in 2018 had accused another person of sexually assaulting her. “Later, when she was exposed by the police, she accused Mahto of supporting that person and lodged a case against him,” they told the court.
Opposing the bail plea, public prosecutor B D Pandey informed the court that there were as many as 35 cases of severe nature lodged against Mahto.
A former BJP office bearer of Katras had accused the MLA of sexually assaulting her at a guesthouse in November 2015. When the police did not file a case against the MLA allegedly under political pressure, the complainant moved the high court. On the HC’s directive, the police lodged a case against on October 4 last year.