A local court in Bengaluru has rejected the transit anticipatory
bail to Indian Youth Congress president B V Srinivas.
He has been
accused of harassment and gender discrimination by Angkita Dutta, a
youth Congress leader from Assam, and has been asked to appear before
the Assam Police for questioning on May 2.
In his plea before the
Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, Srinivas had sought the
transit bail so that he could approach the jurisdictional court for
bail.
Judge K S Jyothishree heard the plea on Thursday and announced
its rejection on Friday.
Appearing for Dutta, senior counsel
Phaneendra submitted that the accused had already approached the
Guwahati high court in the matter but claimed he had not approached any
other court in this plea.
The lawyer argued that since Srinivas was
influential, he would destroy the evidence if granted bail.
He was
accused of serious offences and therefore custodial interrogation was
necessary, he added.
Srinivas's counsel, senior advocate Shashikiran
Shetty had argued that the complainant was hand-in-glove with political
rivals and had made the allegation out of political ill-will.
The Assam
police was in Karnataka to arrest Srinivas in a complaint filed long
after the alleged incident.
Dutta had alleged that Srinivas had
harassed her for over six months and had threatened her not to bring it
to the notice of Congress leaders.
He allegedly assaulted her on
February 25 in a hotel in Chhattisgarh, and allegedly harassed her in
Guwahati as well, earlier.
She filed the complaint on April 19, 2023
in a police station in Kamrup, Assam.
Srinivas has been booked under
various Sections of Indian Penal Code 294, 342, 352, 354, 354(A)(iv), 506 and 509, and
Section 67 of the Information Technology Act. -- PTI