Whatever happened between complainant, accused was consensual: Court while granting anticipatory bail to LJP MP Prince Raj

New Delhi [India], September 25 : A Delhi Court on Saturday granted anticipatory bail to Lok Jansakti Party (LJP) MP Prince Raj Paswan in connection with an alleged rape case against him, stating that whatever happened between the complainant and the accused was consensual.
Special Judge Vikas Dhull on Thursday while granting bail said, "Having regard to the fact that there is an unreasonable delay in lodging the FIR by prosecutrix (Complainant), the present FIR being lodged by prosecutrix as a counterblast to the FIR lodged by accused against prosecutrix way back in February 2021, admission made by prosecutrix that whatever happened between her and the accused was consensual in the transcript of audio recording dated 27.08.2020."
"There being no requirement of custodial interrogation of applicant/accused, absence of an entry in the visitors' registers of Western Court, New Delhi regarding the visit of the prosecutrix on the date of incident and thereafter, in the month of March 2020, the possibility of false implication being prima facie established and there being no chance of tampering with the evidence or accused fleeing from justice, application for grant of anticipatory bail is allowed," said the court.
The court further directed to release the accused on his furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 Lakh with one surety in the like amount. The court also placed conditions on the LJP MP that he shall join the investigation as and when required by the investigating officer (IO) and he shall not threaten, pressurize or contact the prosecutrix in any manner whatsoever i.e through phone, Whatsapp, email, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger etc.
The Delhi Police during the argument had opposed the plea of anticipatory bail petition of Lok Jansakti Party (LJP) MP Prince Raj Paswan. During the hearing in the court, Public Prosecutor submitted that the custodial interrogation of him was needed to recover the alleged video clips having objectionable content as claimed by the victim.
Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa along with Advocate Nitesh Rana submitted that it is a case of honey trap and extortion. "There is no rape victim here, it is a false case," he said.
"The rape case against my client is a frivolous case. My client is innocent. The complainant and her friend have been extorting him since 2020 and my client lodged an FIR of extortion in the Parliament Street Police Station on February 10 this year. She threatened to malign his reputation if he did not pay the extortion amount. He gave her Rs 2 Lakh but the extortion still continued. After the filing of FIR by my client, both the complainant and her friend had to take an anticipatory bail from the court," Rana said.
Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Prince Raj Paswan, accused of the alleged sexual assault case, on September, 14 had moved an anticipatory bail plea in Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court, seeking protection from arrest in the matter.
Prince, who is also the president of the Bihar unit of the party, was booked in the national capital on September 9 for allegedly raping a former party member.
Nitesh Rana, the lawyer for Prince Raj, had earlier in an interview said that the complainant/ victim had filed a complaint on May 31 in Parliament Street Police Station but in the preliminary inquiry, police found that there was no offence committed by Prince.
"The complainant had refused to cooperate with the police during the investigation, in the preliminary investigation report, the police found that no offence was committed by my client and this is a pure case of extortion," he added.
The woman, who claims that she was an LJP worker, had alleged that she was raped and molested while she was unconscious. An FIR was registered after the instructions of a Delhi court almost three months after the victim filed a complaint with the police in Delhi.