Bengal court grants conditional anticipatory bail to Ritabrata Banerjee in alleged rape case
Kolkata, Nov 3 (IBNS): A local court in West Bengal's South Dinajpur district on Friday granted a conditional anticipatory bail to expelled CPI-M Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee in connection with an alleged rape and cheating case.
South Dinajpur district judge Sudeb Mitra granted the anticipatory bail to Ritabrata Banerjee on a personal bail-bond of Rs. 5000.
The court has also directed Banerjee to surrender in next three weeks.
Earlier on Oct 5, techie Namrata Datta, who is a resident of Balurghat in South Dinajpur district, alleged that expelled CPI-M MP Ritabrata Banerjee had sex with her several times in Banerjee's Delhi residence in 2016 after the young communist leader promised to marry her.
Explaining the entire incident on micro-blogging site Twitter, the software engineer lodged a complaint at Balurghat Police Station on Tuesday (Oct 10).
After completing preliminary investigation, police converted the complaint into an FIR and have framed a charge under several IPC sections, including 417, 376(2)/(n), 214, 354, 506 and 509.
Medical tests of Namrata Dutta were done in Balurghat Hospital and she recorded her statements before South Dinajpur District Court's Judicial Magistrate(2nd Court), Aminur Rahaman, under CrPC section 164.
Later, West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) took over the probe and summoned Ritabrata Banerjee while Delhi Police are also investigating the matter.
Banerjee avoided all summons and had appealed for an anticipatory bail at Balurghat court.
Former CPI-M leader Ritabrata Banerjee, however, denied all allegations against him and claimed that the entire matter is a conspiracy against him to malign his image.
The expelled CPI-M leader also lodged a complaint against the woman at Garfa Police Station in Kolkata on Oct 9.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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