Relief for singer Ankit Tiwari in rape case

Granting relief to Bollywood singer Ankit Tiwari of Ashiqui 2 fame, a special women’s court on Thursday granted a stay on the non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued against him for his alleged involvement in a rape case. The singer later filed a discharge application, which would be heard on May 4.

A case of rape was registered against Tiwari after a 28-year-old married woman alleged that the singer raped her on several occasions between 2012-13. The court had issued a warrant against Tiwari as he failed to appear before the court on two consecutive hearings on April 20 and April 25.

Tiwari, through advocate Mahesh Vaswani, moved the special court seeking cancellation of the NBW issued against him. Special judge Anju Shende, however, made it clear that she would not cancel the NBW till Tiwari appears before the court personally.

The court had framed a charge of rape against Tiwari in December last year and the singer had challenged it. The high court had accepted his request and quashed charges against him and also gave him time to file a discharge application in the trial court.

Advocate Vaswani informed the court that although a week’s time granted to the applicant by the high court to file discharge application expired on April 27, with the court’s permission, he had filed the discharge application and on his request the judge granted a stay on the NBW issued against him. The judge has posted the hearing on discharge as well as cancellation of the NBW application on May 4 and in the meantime Tiwari is expected to approach the high court and get an extension of time to file discharge application because he could not file this application within the time given by it.

In the application, Tiwari has claimed that the written statement given to the police and the FIR were different.

According to the applicant, the victim has alleged that she has never consumed liquor, but the fact remains that the victim was working in an advertising company related to entertainment industry and it could not be believed that she had never consumed alcohol.

It is further stated in the application that the relationship between the accused and the victim was consensual and that the allegation that he made a video clip and threatened to make it public was false. Tiwari’s brother Ankur was also arrested for allegedly threatening the victim.