Arrested Woman Moves Guj HC Against Ex-BJP MLA Accused of Rape

Ahmedabad, Jul 27 (PTI) A woman, accused of trying to extort money from a person in Kutch district, has approached the Gujarat High Court alleging that former BJP MLA Jayanti Bhanushali had "pressured" the complainant to lodge a false case against her.

The woman, Manisha Goswami, is in jail for allegedly blackmailing Bhanushali's nephew with an obscene video in order to extort money.

A case in this connection was filed at the Naroda police station in April and Goswami was arrested and sent to the Sabarmati Jail.

Earlier this month, another person, Ajay Thakkar, had lodged a similar complaint against Goswami at the Naliya police station in Kutch district.

The woman has not been formally arrested in the case filed by Thakkar.

Goswami yesterday approached the high court to quash the FIR filed at Naliya, claiming that Thakkar was "pressured" into filing the complaint against her.

In his affidavit, Thakkar too told the court that he had lodged the complaint due to "political pressure" and claimed that Bhanushali had "misled" him to "settle his score with the applicant (Goswami)".

Admitting Goswami's petition and Thakkar's supporting affidavit, Justice Sonia Gokani asked the deputy superintendent of police of Kutch to remain present in the court on July 30 with all the relevant case papers and other evidence collected so far.

Bhanushali is currently facing rape allegations with a 21-year-old woman filing a case against the former BJP MLA at Surat's Sarthana police station.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)