HC denies advance bail to journalist accused of sex abuse

Chennai: The Madras high court has denied anticipatory bail to journalist Prakash M Swamy who apprehended arrest in connection with a sexual abuse case.

The complainant, who is a city-based actor, accused Prakash of sexually abusing her under the pretext of resolving issues related to her son’s passport.

“Considering the facts and circumstances of the case and the seriousness of the offence alleged to be committed by the accused, this court is not inclined to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner, since the custodian of the petitioner is very much required in this case,” Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan said.

According to the prosecution, the petitioner came forward to sort out some issues in the complainants passport on June 30, 2018.

The accused visited the complainants house and made several calls to travel agents to get the passport attested earlier and also to get her husbands death certificate.

At this juncture, the accused sexually abused the complainant and hearing her screaming, her daughter who was in another room came to the rescue.

Immediately, she lodged a criminal complaint against Prakash.

Since no action was initiated, she approached a metropolitan magistrate court here after which the all-woman police registered an FIR against Prakash.

Apprehending arrest in the criminal case, Prakash moved the present application.

When the plea came up for hearing, his counsel contended that the petitioner is a senior journalist and in no way connected with the offence alleged by the prosecution.

He further said since the petitioner inquired into the mysterious death of the complainants husband, she developed a grudge and the entire false complaint came to be lodged.