GUWAHATI: Well-known Assam innovator and Padma Shri awardee Uddhab Kumar Bharali was on Friday sent to 14 days’ judicial custody by a local court after he had surrendered.
Earlier, he was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old while she was under his care. He had managed to secure an interim anticipatory bail.
The order to send him to judicial custody was passed by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Lakhimpur.
The Gauhati High Court had on Thursday cancelled the interim anticipatory bail granted to him by a vacation bench on December 28 after going through the case diary and the audio-visual statements of the minor.
Bharali had alleged he was a victim of a conspiracy and asserted he would fight it out legally.
The 59-year-old is credited with about 118 innovations. He is known for innovations like paddy thresher, cane stripping machine, pomegranate de-seeder and low-cost incinerator. He had received the Padma Shri in 2019.