Calcutta excessive court docket grants reduction to Padma awardee monk in alleged rape case

The court docket additionally accepted the monk’s request for an in-camera listening to, which is scheduled to start on Thursday.

Swami Pradiptananda, popularly referred to as Kartik Maharaj, is head of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s Beldanga ashram in Murshidabad. Skipping a police summon for interrogation he moved the court docket on Tuesday, in search of quashing of the FIR.

“The bench of justice Jay Sengupta heard Kartik Maharaj’s petition on Wednesday and directed the federal government to not take any rapid motion on the idea of the FIR and await the listening to as an alternative,” lawyer Koustav Bagchi, who represented the monk, informed HT.

Lawyer Sandipan Ganguly, who represented the alleged rape survivor, objected to the enchantment for in-camera listening to, saying monks who confronted related costs prior to now had been tried in open court docket. Ganguly cited the instance of Gujarat’s Asaram Bapu.

“Reacting to this, the bench expressed shock on why the Murshidabad lady didn’t file any criticism in 13 years,” Bagchi stated.

The lady has alleged in her criticism lodged on the Lalbagh police station that Swami Pradiptananda raped her repeatedly between 2012 and 2019 by promising her a job. She has alleged that she was pressured to bear an abortion in 2013.

The lady has additionally claimed to have talked to the monk over the telephone on June 12 and alleged that two males despatched by him threatened her the next day.

The monk has shared dais with Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bengal leaders akin to Suvendu Adhikari a number of occasions in current months. In May 2024, chief minister Mamata Banerjee publicly accused him of serving to the BJP within the then ongoing Lok Sabha polls. The monk despatched a authorized discover to Banerjee, demanding an unconditional apology, however she caught to her allegations.

The ruling Trinamool Congress unleashed a recent assault on the monk after he moved the excessive court docket.

Bengal BJP leaders have alleged that the TMC was attempting to border Kartik Maharaj with trumped up costs.