Bengaluru court rejects transit bail plea of IYC President B V Srinivas

Bengaluru: A local court here has rejected the transit anticipatory bail to Indian Youth Congress President B V Srinivas. He has been accused of harassment and gender discrimination by Angkita Dutta, a youth Congress leader from Assam, and has been asked to appear before the Assam Police for questioning on May 2.

In his plea before the Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, Srinivas had sought the transit bail so that he could approach the jurisdictional court for bail.

Judge K S Jyothishree heard the plea on Thursday and announced its rejection on Friday. Appearing for Dutta, senior counsel Phaneendra submitted that the accused had already approached the Guwahati High Court in the matter but claimed he had not approached any other court in this plea. The lawyer argued that since Srinivas was influential, he would destroy the evidence if granted bail. He was accused of serious offences and therefore custodial interrogation was necessary, he added.

Srinivas’s counsel, senior advocate Shashikiran Shetty had argued that the complainant was hand-in-glove with political rivals and had made the allegation out of political ill-will. The Assam police was in Karnataka to arrest Srinivas in a complaint filed long after the alleged incident.

Dutta had alleged that Srinivas had harassed her for over six months and had threatened her not to bring it to the notice of Congress leaders. He allegedly assaulted her on February 25 in a hotel in Chhattisgarh, and allegedly harassed her in Guwahati as well, earlier. She filed the complaint on April 19, 2023 in a police station in Kamrup, Assam. Srinivas has been booked under various Sections of IPC 294, 342, 352, 354, 354(A)(iv), 506 and 509, and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.