Moments after walking out on bail, Munirathna arrested in rape case

BJP MLA for R.R. Nagar Munirathna, who was released from the Bengaluru Central Prison on Friday morning, was arrested by Ramanagara district police in a rape case moments later.

As soon as Mr. Munirathna’s lawyers presented the bail order, issued by the court on Thursday evening, and completed the procedures, the Kaggalipura police arrested him. 

Mr. Munirathna was arrested from Kolar district, on September 14, for allegedly threatening a civic contractor, making casteist remarks, and demanding a bribe from him. The Special Court of Magistrate for Criminal Cases against former and present MPs and MLAs granted him bail in the case on Thursday. The court also granted him anticipatory bail in a case where he was booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

In the Kaggalipura case, in which he has now been arrested, Mr. Munirathna has been booked for rape and for allegedly recording private videos to honey-trap and blackmail a 40-year-old social worker for many years. Mr. Munirathna’s counsel moved for bail in the case on Friday. The case has been listed for September 23, sources said.

The Kaggalipura police, who conducted a spot mahazar of a shed owned by the MLA at Muthyalanagar on Thursday, took him to a resort in Ramanagara and conducted a mahazar on Friday. In her complaint, the victim alleged that she helped honeytrap a woman at the behest of Mr. Munirathna at the resort.

Police hunt for sex videos 

The police are now searching for a sex video clip, which the victim has alleged Mr. Munirathna recorded while raping her and blackmailed her in 2020.

Meanwhile, the police are also on the lookout for the alleged honeytrap videos that the MLA allegedly forced the victim to carry out. The complaint alleges that Mr. Munirathna had honey-trapped several of his opponent politicians and police officials and had been blackmailing them.

Honeytrap case

In her complaint, the victim alleges that Mr. Munirathna forced her to help him honeytrap the husband of a councillor. Sources said the police have recovered that video. The man in question is the husband of a former councillor from the BJP, with whom Mr. Munirathna had a public spat. The woman’s complaint alleges that Mr. Munirathna claimed that the woman he sent to honeytrap the man was an AIDS patient and sought her help to honeytrap the councillor’s son as well, which she refused. The police are now trying to identify and track down the woman in the video, to check if she was forced into it and if she was indeed an AIDS patient.

Published - September 20, 2024 11:55 am IST