Sexual harassment case: Jharkhand HC rejects Cong MLA Pradeep Yadav’s plea

Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court has dismissed Congress MLA Pradeep Yadav’s plea seeking transfer of a criminal case filed against him from Dumka to Bokaro. The case relates to the alleged sexual harassment of a woman activist of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Democratic (JVM-P) party in 2019 and is pending in a court in Dumka.

Earlier this month, the court had dismissed a plea filed by Yadav to quash the sexual harassment case. The bench of Justice Subhash Chand had earlier reserved the verdict after hearing the arguments. Yadav, who joined the Congress after winning the 2019 assembly elections on a JVM-P ticket from Poraihat, is on trial in the MP-MLA court in Dumka.

The woman alleged that Yadav tried to rape her after they met at a hotel in Deoghar to discuss the strategy for the Lok Sabha polls in April 2019, but she managed to escape. After this an FIR was registered. The woman also alleged that the MLA and his supporters had threatened her.

Yadav’s lawyer Bimalkirti Singh told the High Court that his client is a victim of political vendetta and has been framed. Gautam Kumar, the lawyer of the victim, said that there is prima facie evidence that Yadav tried to exploit the woman by luring her. Yadav surrendered before a special court in July 2019 after the High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea and the High Court granted him bail in September of the same year.