<p class="title">The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant any immediate relief to an SP-BSP alliance candidate in Uttar Pradesh who is facing rape allegations.</p>.<p class="title">On May 1, a college girl in Varanasi lodged a <span>rape case at the Lanka police station against the alliance's Ghosi parliamentary constituency candidate, Atul Rai— who is reported to be absconding after the FIR was lodged.</span></p>.<p class="bodytext">A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna declined to consider Rai's plea for quashing the FIR.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“We cannot allow your petition for quashing of the case. You know the principle of quashing,” the bench orally told Rai's counsel.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But the court allowed his counsel to produce additional documents on May 27 as he contended that the victim girl had earlier made similar complaints against others and subsequently compromised.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The counsel also pleaded for Rai's interim protection from arrest till May 23 which the court refused.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The victim alleged that Rai took her to his home for a meeting with his wife and then sexually assaulted her.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Rai claimed that he is a serious candidate from the alliance and said that the "politically-motivated" case was lodged to deter him from campaigning and mar his poll prospects.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Ghosi constituency, in Mau district in eastern Uttar Pradesh, goes to polls on May 19.</p>
<p class="title">The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant any immediate relief to an SP-BSP alliance candidate in Uttar Pradesh who is facing rape allegations.</p>.<p class="title">On May 1, a college girl in Varanasi lodged a <span>rape case at the Lanka police station against the alliance's Ghosi parliamentary constituency candidate, Atul Rai— who is reported to be absconding after the FIR was lodged.</span></p>.<p class="bodytext">A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna declined to consider Rai's plea for quashing the FIR.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“We cannot allow your petition for quashing of the case. You know the principle of quashing,” the bench orally told Rai's counsel.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But the court allowed his counsel to produce additional documents on May 27 as he contended that the victim girl had earlier made similar complaints against others and subsequently compromised.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The counsel also pleaded for Rai's interim protection from arrest till May 23 which the court refused.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The victim alleged that Rai took her to his home for a meeting with his wife and then sexually assaulted her.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Rai claimed that he is a serious candidate from the alliance and said that the "politically-motivated" case was lodged to deter him from campaigning and mar his poll prospects.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Ghosi constituency, in Mau district in eastern Uttar Pradesh, goes to polls on May 19.</p>