HC grants bail, but police chargesheet nixes relief to Cong MP facing rape charge

Lucknow: A day before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad high court granted bail to Congress MP Rakesh Rathore in the rape case on Tuesday, Sitapur police on Monday filed a chargesheet in court adding section 69 (sexual intercourse with deceit) of the BNS that has a punishment quantum of ten years in jail.
As a result, despite the order passed by a single bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan on the bail plea of Rakesh Rathore, the Congress MP will remain in jail. The accused had argued that he had been falsely implicated for political reasons and that the FIR against him was registered after four years of the alleged incident.
While opposing the bail plea, the govt lawyer and the victim pleaded that during the investigation, an audio recording of the MP had also been found in which he is giving assurances of marriage and other things to the victim, on this basis of which, section 69 has also been added to the case.
The FIR against MP Rakesh Rathore was filed by the survivor accusing him of rape, criminal intimidation, and wrongful confinement at the Kotwali police station on January 18, 2025. The woman in her FIR also alleged that her association with the MP began in 2018 when he proposed political collaboration under his patronage. She claimed the accused used his position to build trust by giving her a position in the party's district unit.
The anticipatory bail plea of the accused was rejected by the HC on January 29. Rathore was arrested the next day.
A senior police officer from Sitapur said that the MP, as of now, has got bail only on charges of rape and criminal intimidation. He will have to secure bail under BNS section 69, too, for getting out of jail, he said.
Another case against MP Rakesh Rathore and his accomplice Reshma Khatoon under the charges of BNS section 351 (2) (criminal intimidation) was lodged in Sitapur on Feb 20.