Morani surrenders before police, sent to jail till October 6

Bollywood producer Karim Morani surrendered before police last night after the Supreme Court upheld the Hyderabad High Court's decision to cancel the anticipatory bail granted to the filmmaker, accused of raping an aspiring actress.

Morani was formally placed under arrest after his surrender here and was produced in court which sent him to judicial custody for 14 days, a police officer said today.

"Morani surrendered before us (Hayathnagar police) around midnight. After completing legal formalities and medical check up, he was produced before a court today. He was remanded in judicial custody till October 6," J Narender Goud, Hayathnagar Police Inspector told PTI.
 

He said police have filed a petition seeking Morani's custody for seven days for further questioning.

On September 5, the Hyderabad High Court had upheld a lower court's order to cancel Morani's anticipatory bail on grounds of concealment of the fact that he had been facing criminal trial in the 2G scam case, and was in jail for several months.

It was alleged that Morani had sedated the Delhi-based woman and raped her several times, besides taking her nude photos between July 2015 and January 2016. The victim also alleged that Morani had raped her at a film studio here in 2015.

The woman, aged around 25 years, lodged a complaint with the Hayathnagar police under Rachakonda police commissionerate in January this year.

Following the complaint, the producer was booked under IPC sections 417 (punishment for cheating), 376 (rape), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation), 493 (cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage) and other relevant sections of the IPC.

The sessions court in Telangana had initially granted anticipatory bail to Morani on January 30, but later cancelled it after being told that the producer had concealed in his bail plea his involvement in the 2G case and the fact that he was in jail in connection with it.