Supreme Court seeks Rajasthan government response in plea to cancel bail of Congress MLA's son in rape case

The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the response of the Rajasthan government on a plea moved by the uncle of a rape-survivor, seeking cancellation of bail granted to the son of a sitting Congress MLA, Johari Lal in the rape case [Bhagwan Singh vs Dilip Kumar @ Deepu @ Deepak and anr]..A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta issued notice to the accused and the State, after hearing counsel for the petitioner, advocate Anuj Bhandari. The matter will be taken up next on May 15..The appellant moved the Court challenging an April 6 order of the Jaipur bench of the Rajasthan High Court, granting bail to two accused in connection with the rape of a 15-year-old girl. The minor had named the accused in her statements, and submitted that she had been threatened against revealing the incident since they had taken photos and videos at the time and would make those viral.A first information report (FIR) was lodged on March 25 last year for gang rape and offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act).However, the main accused (son of the MLA), aged 46 at the time, was only apprehended in January this year. The High Court granted him bail after noting the time likely to be taken to complete the trial..The petitioner before the top court contended that the High Court completely ignored the nature of the offence, the likelihood of the accused absconding and tampering with evidence and influencing witnesses.The accused had only been in custody for three months but the High Court went into the merits of the case to grant bail, it was pointed out."Accused Deepak is son of sitting MLA Shri Johari Lal and is highly influential. There are bright chances of Accused tampering with the evidence and witnesses during the trial if they are enlarged on bail. There has already been tampering with evidence which is apparent from the record," it was submitted.The appeal highlighted the facts of the missing register entries and CCTV footage of the hotel where the incident took place, along with the name of the MLA's son not being there in the final chargesheet despite being named in the complaint..The petitioner, therefore, submitted that there should be an interim stay on the High Court order granting bail to the accused.