[Ramesh Jarkiholi Sex Tape] Karnataka High Court seeks response from Jarkiholi, SIT on plea by victim to quash honey trap complaint against her

The victim in the sex scandal involving former State minister Ramesh Jarkiholi has approached the Karnataka High Court seeking to quash a complaint filed by Jarkiholi against her before Sadashivanagara Police in which he alleged that she had honey trapped him. .Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav issued notice to Jarikholi and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating Jarkiholi's complaint, and sought their responses. .Jarkiholi, who was the Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Department had to tender his resignation in March 2021 after being accused of demanding sexual favours from the petitioner in the present case, in exchange for giving her a job..A CD containing footage of the alleged incident was leaked to the media. This prompted Jarkiholi to file a complaint against unknown persons, accusing them of framing him. An SIT was also constituted to probe into the allegations made by him. .The petition by the victim woman alleged that SIT, under the influence of the accused and with a view to safeguard him, has been projecting her as an accused in a honey trap case registered against her. .It was submitted that the accused made a statement before the SIT in March 2021, that she along with others conspired, honey-trapped and extorted money from him using the sex video. .Such a statement, she contended, was made with the intent to assassinate her character and to circumvent the investigation of the complaint of rape filed by her against Jarkiholi before the Cubbon Park police. “It is placed on record that, the respondent-2 choose to file a complaint on March 13, 2021 through his friend Mr.... before the Sadashivanagar Police Station, ie., after 11 days of the filing of the complaint by Sri Dinesh Kallahalli on March 2, 2021. The complaint dated March 13, 2021 filed by the respondent-2 prima facie appears to be an afterthought, to circumvent the investigation into the aforesaid serious allegations against respondent-2. And, the same prima facie appears to be the attempt by police to refuse to / circumvent the probe against the respondent-2 in relation to the allegations of commission of offence of rape by abuse of power and authority. The complaint dated March 13, 2021 filed by the respondent-2, was transferred to SIT for probe,” the plea said. .The petitioner contended that during the preliminary enquiry of the matter, the accused had vehemently denied being a part of the sex video in the CD and claimed that the video was fake and alleged to have been morphed using his photograph. He had also denied any acquaintance with her and did not make any allegations against her. He also avoided appearance before the SIT for two months owing to this reason..However, recently, he claimed that the said video is genuine and that he had consensual sexual intercourse with her..His latest statement is in total contravention to his earlier statement, the petitioner pointed out..Therefore, the petition sought quashing of the complaint filed by Jarkiholi against the petitioner. .The matter will be heard next on June 21, 2021.