BHOPAL: In a new twist to the abduction and rape cases involving opposition Congress MLA Hemant Katare, the first-time legislator from Ater, has emerged in two video clips saying that he will expose the entire plot against him in the next 48 hours.
The two video clips have gone viral over the social media on Saturday evening, just a day after the special investigation team (SIT) of Bhopal police probing the cases involving Katare announced a bounty of Rs 10,000 on his arrest.
In the two videos which went viral over social media on Friday evening, Katare, the MLA from Ater seat of Bhind district is seen claiming that in the next 48 hours he will expose the real conspiracy behind the two cases lodged against him by Bhopal police earlier this month.
“I’ll expose the real conspiracy behind both the cases and also bring to the fore that the complainant girl in the case runs an organised blackmailing-extortion racket in collusion with her aide Vikramjit Singh,” Katare is seen claiming in the videos.
In the same videos, the first-time MLA claims that he is being targeted as he is the son of the former leader of opposition in the State Assembly, Late Satyadeo Katare and comes from a particular social class or because he has been endlessly engaged in raising issues of corruption in the BJP-ruled state.
“I demand that DIG-Bhopal and the in-charges of Bajariya police station and Mahila Thana of Bhopal be suspended for lodging false cases of rape and abduction against me. Also, I seek from MP DGP Rishi Kumar Shukla and State Assembly speaker Sitasaran Sharma to break their silence in the entire matter,” Katare is seen saying in the videos.
Importantly, the Congress legislator has also petitioned the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur, seeking quashing of the two FIRs lodged against him in Bhopal earlier this month.
Earlier on Friday, the SIT of police, which is probing the three cases in which Katare is either accused or a complainant, had declared a bounty of Rs 10,000 on his arrest. Besides, placing bounty on the arrest of Katare who has been evading arrest in the rape-abduction cases, the SIT also declared equivalent reward on the arrest of one Vikramjit Singh, who is a co-accused in the case of extortion and blackmailing lodged by the Congress MLA against a journalism student girl at Bhopal Crime Branch on January 23.
Prior to the videos which went viral on Friday, a series of other audio and video clips featuring the MLA, the journalism student girl, her mother and Vikramjit Singh, besides audio-clips of telephonic conversation between Katare and the aspiring journalist girl too have gone viral over social media during last 4-5 weeks. Most of these videos and audios have been sent for forensic analysis by the SIT.
The entire controversy started on January 24 when the 20-year-old girl student of Makhanlal National University of Journalism and Communication, Bhopal was arrested by Bhopal police crime branch allegedly while taking Rs 5 lakh from Katare.
A day before that, the MLA had lodged a case at Bhopal crime branch against the girl and her aide Vikramjit Singh for allegedly threatening to frame him up in false rape case and subsequently blackmailing and extorting money from him.
While in Bhopal Central Jail, the blackmailing-extortion accused girl had sent letter-cum-complaint to DIG-Bhopal Dharmendra Chaudhary alleging her rape by Katare between September 2017 and January 2018 in Bhopal and Delhi. Based on the complaint a case of rape was lodged by Mahila Thana Bhopal against the MLA on February 2. Also, a case of alleged abduction of the girl’s mother by the MLA and his men posing as crime branch sleuths was lodged against the legislator at Bajariya police station of Bhopal.
On February 4, the leader of opposition in MP State Assembly Ajay Singh had met CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan alleging political conspiracy against party MLA Katare, after which a SIT of Bhopal police was constituted on February 6 to probe all three cases in which Katare is either an accused or a complainant.
The same day (February 6), the girl was released on bail after spending 13 days in Bhopal Central Jail. Out of jail, she had leveled damning allegations against ASP (Crime-Bhopal) Rashmi Mishra and Congress MLA Hemant Katare and claimed that both of them had colluded to get her implicated in false case of blackmailing-extortion. Just a few days later, she also made allegations against IG-Bhopal Jaydeep Prasad.