‘No idea what was written in FIR’: Rape survivor turns hostile

The woman, in her deposition that began on May 19 and ended late evening on May 22, has said that she “did not approach the police with a complaint of rape against the accused”.

Advocate Hitesh Gupta, representing the two accused — CA Ashok Jain and Hemant Bhatt alias Raju, former secretary of Kalika Mata temple trust of Pavagadh – said that the woman informed the court that her complaint was only regarding “blackmail calls” she received from unidentified persons.
Gupta said, “She has told the police that she was not in Vadodara but was stationed in Delhi when she received her morphed photographs on WhatsApp from her friend.

She arrived in Vadodara to approach the police when she is said to have met two individuals, who pretended to help her as advocates. She told the court that she narrated her complaint to them and they handed over her application to the police assuming that it was for her complaint of blackmail with morphed photographs…She told the court that she had no intention to file a complaint of rape against Ashok Jain and Raju Bhatt.”

Gupta added that he will now move a bail application for Bhatt, who has been been in the central jail in Vadodara since his arrest in September 2021.

“The survivor’s deposition has only reinforced our argument right that the chargesheet was flawed and that the complainant had been misled by people who had vested interests in trapping both my clients… We have already pointed out that the FSL and DNA test reports, which are part of the chargesheet, do not match with the samples taken from the accused. We have also pointed out the lacuna in the investigation and prayed for further probe…,” the lawyer said.

Gupta said that the statement of bootlegger Alpesh Wadhwani alias Alpu Sindhi, who was one of the key witnesses of the Crime Branch that was probing the case, did not match the police investigation. “They have claimed that Jain sent the private pictures of the woman to Alpu Sindhi, who then sent the same to her and therefore, she came to file a complaint regarding the morphed pictures. But Alpu has not said in his statement that it was Jain who sent him the photos,” he said.

The next hearing in the case is slated for June 5.

The FIR in the case was registered at Gotri police station on September 19, 2021. The Crime Branch arrested Bhatt, Jain as well as businessman and hotelier Kanji Mokariya for allegedly aiding Bhatt’s escape from the city. The police have said that Mokariya was in constant touch with Bhatt, helping him evade arrest, and had also visited the flat where the alleged crime had occurred. After the FIR was lodged, videos of the said act had become viral on social media.

According to the police case, the woman, originally from Haryana, had arrived in Vadodara to pursue law from a private university when she began working at Jain’s office as an intern. She also resided in a flat allegedly provided by Jain. It is in this flat that Jain and Bhatt allegedly raped her, the police have alleged.