Dy Mayor underground for over a month, applies for anticipatory bail

Parminder Kataria, the deputy Mayor of Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, had filed a plea for an anticipatory bail in response to the rape allegation by a woman on November 8. The court set November 18 as the date of the next hearing, when the decision on the bail plea will be announced.

“After presenting our arguments in court, we also produced vital documents to ask for anticipatory bail of our client. The order will be scheduled on November 18,” said Shashi Bala, Kataria’s lawyer who filed the bail application with advocate Sanjeev Rao.

The complainant claimed that police has shown a lot of relaxation in this case which gave Kataria enough time to apply for an anticipatory bail. But on the contrary, the police claim that they have been making earnest efforts to nab the accused.

“We’re on the lookout for him. We’ve conducted raids at all possible hideouts and are questioning his associates and family, but have not got any leads. We hope he will be arrested soon,” said Deepak Saharan, DCP (East), Gurgaon.

“It is surprising that Kataria has access to courts and lawyers and yet the police are unable to trace him,” the complainant added. 

A complaint was filed against Kataria on October 24 by a woman, alleging the deputy Mayor of raping her on many occasions on the pretext of getting her a job with MCG, and later promising to marry her. 

She subsequently withdrew her complaint in front of the magistrate on October 27 but later wrote to the Chief Minister claiming she had been pressurised by Kataria to withdraw the complaint, as he had threatened her children, who live separately. 

On November 9, non-bailable arrest warrants were issued against Kataria but the police have not managed to trace him yet.