Dhullu Mahto acquitted in 2018 rape case
The special court of MP-MLA Akhilesh Kumar on Tuesday acquitted Dhullu Mahto, BJP MLA from Baghmara, in connection with an old case related to charges of rape and outraging the modesty of woman against him levelled by a former woman leader of his own party, who later joined the Congress.
The court, which recorded the statement of Mahto, while pronouncing the judgment acquitted him of all charges due to lack of evidence against him.
A former president of women’s wing of Katras Unit of the BJP in her one line complaint filed on November 23, 2018 in Katras police station had alleged that Mahto had called on her mobile phone on November 15, 2018 and asked her to meet him at Tundu in Baghmara a week later and when she went there he tried to grab her in presence of BJP Katras unit worker Anand Sharma and another person Ayodhya Thakur and later also raped her. She later informed her husband about the incident
after somehow coming out of the guest house.
Notably, Dhanbad police on October 4, 2019 lodged FIR against Dhullu Mahto after the woman moved Jharkhand high court raising the issue of delay in lodging of FIR on her complaint on August 28, 2019 and the court then directed Dhanbad police to lodge the FIR and also sought the reasons for the delay in doing the same.
No witness, however, could be produced before the court and of the woman’s husband in his statement claimed that he had no information about anything like rape happening with her wife.
As he retracted from his previous statement, Additional Prosecutor Samit Prakash declared the victim side as hostile.