New Delhi, Sep 3 (PTI) A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday against grant of anticipatory bail to Gayatri Parivar head Pranav Pandya in an alleged rape case of 2010.

The petition, likely to come up for hearing in the next few days, has been filed against an Uttarakhand High Court order on May 21 granting him interim anticipatory bail.

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The high court, while granting interim protection from arrest to Pandya, rendered “erroneous findings which will affect the investigation as well as the outcome of the trial,” the plea said.

“The findings rendered by the High Court were not at all warranted as the investigation of the case was at initial stage inasmuch the FIR was registered on May 9 only and the High Court interfered by the impugned order on May 21,” it said.

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The FIR was filed under Section 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) IPC at a local Police Station. 

According to the petition, the victim, a tribal girl, hails from a village in Chhattisgarh and had gone to 'Santikunj Ashram' run by Pandya since her family was devotee of Gayatri Pariwar which runs the Ashram.

It said the victim was raped three times by the accused over few weeks in July 2010 and he threatened her not to disclose about the incident to anyone. 

“However, when the prosecutrix informed Shailbala Pandya (wife of Pranav Pandya and a co-accused in the case) after third incident of rape, she also threatened her not to disclose about the incident to anybody, otherwise she will be defamed in the Ashram as well as the society,” the plea said

At the time of the incident, the victim was a minor, 15 years and two months old, it claimed.

It said that police had initially refused to lodge an FIR but after the assistance of Delhi Women Commission and an NGO, People Against Rapes In India, and its founder Yogita Bhayana, a zero FIR was registered at Vivek Vihar Delhi earlier this year, which was subsequently transferred to Police Station Kotwali, Haridwar.

The petition said: “The victim could not get the FIR registered earlier due to various reasons, such as, no family support as her father was already dead, poor family background, no financial support, lack of education, serious health issues inasmuch as she was suffering from sickle cell disease and having other medical complications for which she was taking continuous treatment with the financial support of others.”

(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)