Telangana HC grants anticipatory bail to rape accused Doctor

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has granted anticipatory bail to a doctor who was arrested for allegedly raping a nurse on the pretext of marriage.

The 32-year-old doctor, identified as Dr. Sandep Bhardwaj, was accused of raping a 24-year-old nurse in 2019 while they were colleagues at a city-based hospital. He was on the wanted list. However, on August 12, he was arrested after the nurse filed a complaint at the police station.

The nurse alleged that the accused, a resident of Narayanguda, had proposed marriage to her, following which they became close and had a physical relationship for the past two years, The Deccan Chronicle reports.

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Rejecting several offers made by the nurse to marry her, she then took the initiative and filed a complaint against him.

"After sexually assaulting her several times, when she asked him about their marriage, he started avoiding her and threatened her and told her to stay away," said the police.

After acquiring the bail, he went to the police station to show the bail on the same day. Moreover, The court directed the accused to appear before the investigation officer (IO) of Narayanguda police station once a week.

Narayanguda inspector R Srinivas Reddy told TOI "As the accused cheated the victim by promising to marry her and sexually exploited her, she lodged a complaint with us. Based on the complaint, we registered a case under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the accused,"

"Bhardwaj has got bail, but we have already prepared a charge sheet against him," Reddy added.

"He obtained anticipatory bail from the high court. We will record his statement and continue with the investigation," assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Abids, K Venkat Reddy said.

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