HC stays arrest of ex-MLA in rape case

Jodhpur: The Rajasthan High Court on Friday stayed the arrest of former Barmer legislator Mevaram Jain till January 22 in an alleged gang-rape case.
Jain moved high court after an FIR was filed against him and eight others by a woman accusing them of gang-rape, intimidation, blackmailing, harassment and threats. Allowing Jain’s petition, Justice Dinesh Mehta granted this stay on his arrest till January 22 and also directed the police to provide protection to the complainant woman.
In her complaint, filed in Jodhpur’s Rajiv Gandhi Nagar police station, the woman alleged that she was sexually assaulted and raped by an accused Ramswaroop five years back.Two years later, after being introduced by Ramswaroop, the then legislator Jain also allegedly raped her.
Accusing them of recording the crime and continuously raping her since then, she also alleged that they gang-raped one of her friends and molested her minor daughter on occasions.
Fearing arrest after the filing of the case against him, Jain moved high court seeking stay on his arrest in the course of the investigation of the case.
A case against the complainant woman had already been filed in Barmer police station. One of the accused Ramswaroop, a close aide of Jain, field this case in November against the complainant woman and five others alleging blackmailing through some explicit pictures and videos.
In his complaint, he termed the accused in his case, members of a gang.