NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Thursday opposed the anticipatory bail plea of Lok Jansakti Party (LJP) MP Prince Raj in an alleged rape case and said his custodial interrogation was required.
Police submitted before special judge MK Nagpal that it needed Raj's custody to recover the alleged video clips having objectionable content as claimed by the complainant.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa and lawyer Nitesh Rana, representing Raj, opposed the submission made by police, and claimed that the matter was rather of honey trap and extortion.
Raj, nephew of late Ram Vilas Paswan and cousin of Chirag Paswan, is a Member of Parliament from Samastipur in Bihar.
Pahwa termed the case as "frivolous" and told the court, "There is no rape victim here, its a false case."
Rana submitted before the judge that the complainant and her friend have been extorting from Raj since 2020 and an FIR was registered in the Parliament Street Police Station on February 10 this year in this regard.
"She (complainant) threatened to malign his (Raj) reputation if he did not pay the extortion amount. He gave her Rs two lakh but the extortion still continued. After the filing of FIR by my client, both the complainant and her friend had to take an anticipatory bail from the court," he said.
The court will further hear the matter on Friday.
Raj moved the application for anticipatory bail after a case was registered on the direction of a court here on September 9.
On May 31, the woman filed a complaint against Raj for allegedly raping her, the lawyer said.
Rana said the woman later approached the court seeking registration of an FIR against Raj on her complaint, following which the court had sought an Action Taken Report (ATR) from police.
In its ATR, the police submitted before the court that nothing was found on her complaint and that it was a matter of extortion, he said.
The lawyer further claimed that in her own complaint field before the police in May, the woman did not appear before the police to help in the investigation.
The woman, who claims that she was an LJP worker, has accused Raj of raping her while she was unconscious.