The Gauhati High Court rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Srinivas BV in connection with the allegations of harassment levelled by Angkita Dutta.

Angkita Dutta, the former president of Assam Youth Congress was expelled from the party for anti-party activities on April 22.

While hearing the pre-arrest bail petition of Srinivas BV, the bench of Justice Ajit Borthakur said "consideration of the various pleas taken by the petitioner and the documents he filed, this Court is of the opinion that it is not a fit case to grant the privilege of pre-arrest bail to the petitioner. Accordingly, the pre-arrest bail application of the petitioner stands rejected."

According to the order copy, the petition was filed under Section 438 CrPC, for granting the privilege of pre-arrest bail to the petitioner, namely Srinivas B.V. apprehending arrest in connection with Dispur Police Station Case No. 692/2023 under Sections 509/294/341/352/354/354A (iv)/506 of the IPC read with Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (for short 'I.T. Act').

The case was registered at Dispur Police Station against Srinivas BV following the complaint lodged by Dr Angkita Dutta, former president of Assam Youth Congress.

"The First Information Report (FIR) reveals the allegations that the informant/victim, is the former President of the Assam Youth Congress and the present petitioner is the President of the Indian Youth Congress. It has been alleged that the petitioner has been persistently harassing the informant/victim woman mentally by way of sexist and slang words and also threatening her with dire consequences if she complained the same before the high office bearers of the Youth Congress. It is further alleged that when the alleged victim went to Raipur in the state of Chhattisgarh to attend the plenary session of the Congress Party held on 25.02.2023, she was received by one Bhupen Bora, the President of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) at Mayfair Hotel and met other high office bearers of the Congress party. At the entrance of the hotel when she came across the petitioner, he heckled her by holding her arms and also threatened her by using slang words. It is also alleged that despite complaining about the persistent unwarranted conduct of the petitioner on several occasions to the high office bearers of the Congress Party, her complaint did not yield any result and as such, she lodged the instant FIR," said in the order copy.

According to K.N. Choudhury, learned Sr. Counsel appearing for the petitioner, the FIR has been lodged with an ulterior motive to malign the reputation of the petitioner and to avoid any litigation for making defamatory statements made by the informant on social media against him.