A special court in Delhi on Saturday granted anticipatory bail plea to Prince Raj, a sitting Lok Janshakti Party MP from Samastipur, Bihar in an alleged case of rape [Prince Raj v. State]..Special Judge Vikas Dhull while allowing the politician's pre-arrest bail plea stated that Raj had “clean antecedents”, which was confirmed by the report of investigating officer. It also said,“The possibility of applicant/accused fleeing from justice is also quite remote as applicant/accused is a sitting Lok Sabha member and has got deep roots in the society. There is also remote likelihood of applicant/accused repeating the similar or any other offence as he is a sitting member of Lok Sabha and he will not jeopardise his chance to get reelected by committing similar or any other offence."The bail order pointed out an “unusual delay in lodging the FIR” against Raj by the complainant. “Therefore, the possibility of prosecutrix lodging the present FIR to falsely implicate applicant/accused as a counter blast to FIR No.27/21 PS Parliament Street lodged against her by applicant/accused and to put pressure upon applicant/accused, cannot be ruled out at this stage,” it noted..Raj, represented by Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa, sought pre arrest bail on the ground that the court which ordered FIR against him on September 8, 2021 did not have the jurisdiction over the police station concerned. The allegations were stated to have been levelled by a former party worker. An Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court had ordered FIR against Raj, who claimed that despite moving a duty court subsequently, he was not provided with a copy of the FIR.The applicant has alleged that the complaint was filed with an intention to extort money.“Complaint is frivolous in nature, which is apparent on the face of it and had been filed merely to harass the petitions and to settle the vendetta of the complainant against the applicant after extorting him by threatening to implicate him in a false case,” the plea read.The defense had submitted that the MP had filed an FIR alleging extortion in February, 2021.Raj was represented by Pahwa and Advocates Nitesh Rana and Anuj Tiwari. Advocate Manish Rawat appeared for the State..[Read Order]
