Mahesh Murthy seeks anticipatory bail, sees malicious intent in complaint

Murthy, in his anticipatory bail plea, claimed he was falsely indicted in the case and was “feeling aggrieved by the completely malicious registration of the FIR”. He further claimed that the complaint filed 14 years after the incident was barred by period of limitation under section 468 of the Criminal Procedure Code due to the time elapsed. He said he could have been targeted for rejecting her business proposal in 2004.

The complainant had said in her statement to police that she had met Murthy in 2004 to discuss her business venture at a coffee shop in Bandra. She told police that claiming that the music was loud in the coffee shop, he sat close to her. He then allegedly began speaking on marriages and then began inappropriately touching her and then forcibly kissed her, she stated. She told the police that since in the past year, she saw women come forward on the Internet complaining about Murthy, she also decided to mention the 2004 incident.

The complainant on Tuesday opposed Murthy’s anticipatory bail plea by filing an intervention application. The prosecution also opposed the application claiming that his custodial interrogation was necessary. Murthy has said in his plea that the complaint has been filed with an unreasonable and inexplicable delay of 14 years. He further claimed that the complainant’s version has “changed enormously” over the last 14 years. He claims that in 2004, the complainant had contacted him requesting for a meeting with him to seek his advice. In the meeting, he claims he had “regretfully declined to invest in her business”. “The complainant has not yet digested the bitter pill of rejection,” Murthy said in his plea.

He further claimed that he receives 150 to 200 business plans a month for his consideration for potential investment.

“Between 1999 and 2005, the applicant got requests for funding from about 2,000 companies and invested in about a dozen. On an average, the applicant rejected more than 99 out of 100 applications. This often leads to applicants being disgruntled, disappointed and frustrated by the decision taken by the applicant to reject their proposals,” his lawyer claimed on his behalf.

He also said that he had been granted anticipatory bail in the first FIR filed in February as well and that he had cooperated with the investigation and would appear before the police if required. In February, Murthy was arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a 32-year-old woman from Delhi.

The court will decide on his plea on Saturday.