Woman who accused ex-BJP MLA of rape goes missing

On Sunday, 15th July 2018, Surat police said that the woman who had lodged a rape case against former BJP MLA Jayanti Bhanushali was untraceable.

On 10th July 2018, the 21-year-old victim and a resident of Surat had written to the police in seek of registration of a rape case against the BJP MLA who represented the Abdasa constituency between 2007 and 2012.

The woman had failed to appear before the police despite being issued summons, said the Police Commissioner Satish Sharma.

He added, “We had tried to contact the complainant and sent her summons on the address given in the letter received in order to record her statement.”

Then he mentioned that “A notice was pasted on the door of the house of the complainant as nobody was present there when police arrived.”

“She is untraceable. We are trying to contact her but have failed so far,” he said further.

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It was reported that the FIR was yet to be filed as the the victim had not approached the police in person or through a relative but through a third person to file the complaint.

The victim’s identity is still unclear as they had received another letter in April from a woman sharing the same name as the complainant urging the police to ignore any complaint against the BJP leader.

He said, “We had received another notarised letter in her name, sent to us in April, saying that somebody is trying to make a false application in her name against Bhanushali. She had asked the police to ignore such a complaint.”

As soon as the matter was revealed by the police to media the 53-year-old leader from Kutch district had to step down as the party’s state vice-president. In his resignation letter, accepted by state BJP president Jitu Vaghani, Bhanushali denied all allegations against him.

In the letter of complaint, the victim alleged that the former MLA raped her on several occasions since last November after promising to get her admitted to a reputed fashion design institute. She also alleged that the act was videographed by one of his assistants.

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