IYC President's Anticipatory Bail Denied in Harassment Case

The Gauhati High Court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to the national president of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), Srinivas Bhadravathi Venkata, in a case related to harassment charges made by Angkita Dutta. The former youth president of the Assam Youth Congress was removed from the party on April 22 after making the allegations. The court rejected Srinivas BV's pre-arrest bail plea under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, stating that it was not a fit case to grant bail. The case was filed against Srinivas BV by Angkita Dutta at the Dispur Police Station under Sections 509/294/341/352/354/354A (iv)/506 of the IPC read with Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The FIR alleged that Srinivas BV had been harassing Angkita Dutta mentally by using sexist and slang words and threatening her with dire consequences if she complained to the high office bearers of the Youth Congress. When she attended the plenary session of the Congress Party in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, on February 25, 2023, she was heckled by Srinivas BV at the entrance of the hotel, according to the FIR. Despite complaining to the high office bearers of the Congress Party, her complaint did not yield any result, and she lodged the FIR. Srinivas BV's lawyer argued that the FIR was filed with the ulterior motive of slandering his reputation and avoiding any litigation for defamatory statements made by the informant on social media against him. However, the court rejected his pre-arrest bail plea.