The Jharkhand High Court on Friday rejected a petition filed by Congress MLA Pradeep Yadav who sought the dismissal of a sexual harassment case filed against him by a woman.
After hearing the arguments, a bench of Justice Subhash Chand had reserved the order, which was pronounced during the day.
Yadav, who joined the Congress after winning the 2019 assembly elections on a JVM-P ticket from Poraiyahat, is facing prosecution in the MP-MLA court in Dumka.
An FIR was filed after the woman, a JVM-P member and an advocate of the high court, alleged that Yadav tried to rape her in April 2019 after they met at a hotel in Deoghar to discuss the strategy for the Lok Sabha elections. However, she managed to escape from the spot.
She also alleged that the MLA and his supporters threatened her.
Yadav’s lawyer Bimalkirti Singh told the high court that his client was a victim of political vendetta, and had been falsely named in the case.
The victim’s advocate Gautam Kumar claimed that there is prima facie evidence of Yadav trying to exploit the woman by offering her political leverage.
The high court had in 2019 rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Yadav. He had surrendered before the special court in July 2019, and was granted bail by the high court in September of that year.
