By Express News Service

BHOPAL: A 21-year-old journalism student from Bhopal who got a rape case lodged against first-time Congress MLA Hemant Katare in February 2018, took a U-turn in the case on Thursday submitting before the Madhya Pradesh High Court that she had leveled false allegations against the legislator on being misled by a group of persons guided by state BJP vice-president Arvind Bhadoria.

Importantly, the aspiring journalist is the same girl who was arrested by Bhopal Crime Branch in January for allegedly blackmailing and extorting money from the same first time Congress MLA by threatening to implicate him in a false rape case. She spent a few days in judicial custody at the Bhopal Central Jail before being granted bail in the case by a local court.

Importantly, the group of persons whom she has accused of misleading her to lodge a rape case against Katare, include the advocate who was pleading her case, a senior journalist based in Bhopal and one Vikramjeet Singh, who is her co-accused in the extortion and blackmailing case registered against her by the Ater MLA Hemant Katare in January 2018.

She has alleged in the affidavit that it was the state BJP national vice president Arvind Bhadoria, who had masterminded the entire conspiracy to frame the Congress MLA Hemant Katare in the false rape case lodged by her in February 2018.

Importantly, Bhadoria had lost a closely fought assembly by-election to Hemant Katare (son of a former leader of opposition in state assembly Late Satyadeo Katare) by 850-plus votes from Ater seat of Bhind district in April 2017.

Reacting to the affidavit filed in the HC by the girl, state Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said it has now exposed the political conspiracy hatched by the ruling BJP against the Congress MLA Hemant Katare. “The CM should come forward and set an example by acting against those named by the girl in the affidavit,” demanded Chaturvedi.

While state BJP spokesperson Rajpal Singh Sisodiya said nothing can be commented in the matter as its sub judice, the party’s state vice president Arvind Bhadoria who has been named as the prime conspirator by the girl in the affidavit denied knowing or meeting the girl.

The SP Bhopal South Rahul Kumar, who heads the SIT probing all cases pertaining to Katare and the girl, including extortion case lodged by the legislator against the girl and the rape case and kidnapping case lodged against Katare by the girl and her mother respectively, said “nothing can be commented till we get the copies of the affidavit.”

The journalism student submitted a three-page affidavit before the MP High Court in Jabalpur in which she stated “I would like to confess that the allegations levelled by me in the said FIR are completely false and fabricated and have been levelled because I was deeply agonized by the persecution and harassment in jail. I was told that levying allegations on MLA Hemant Katare was the only way by which I could get bail in the extortion and blackmailing case.”

“Every time I expressed a desire to tell the truth they would get me reiterate false allegations in one way or the other either before the press or in court in the form of statements or writ petitions and make me tell the lie again on the affidavit. I was misled and manipulated to level false allegations against Hemant Katare and was made to believe that by doing so I can take revenge from Hemant for getting me arrested in the false extortion case,” the alleged rape survivor girl submitted before the HC in the affidavit.

“On April 2, 2018, they asked me to write letters to the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh HC, alleging bias and gave me a letter and asked me to imitate it in my handwriting. I at that point of time did, as they asked me to do. I would, however, apologize for having written that letter,” the affidavit mentioned.

“These people tried to portray as if they had sympathy for me. However, they made me level false allegations for their own personal gains and benefits. As a matter of fact, I’ve been made a scapegoat for the political motives of these influential people,” the girl stated in the affidavit.

“I apologize for having levelled false allegations, I fear that on my stating the truth that I’m now making public, these influential people like Arvind Bhadoria can cause grave harm to me and my family and can even get me and family members murdered. I seek mercy for my wrongdoings,” she mentioned.

In the same affidavit, the alleged rape survivor has stated that while being in judicial custody in January 2018, when she refused to level rape allegations against the Congress MLA, she was harassed in the jail.