Gurugram: The Haryana BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli and singer Rocky Mittal have been given a clean chit for a second time by a Himachal Pradesh court in a gang-rape case.
The additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Kasauli Thursday accepted the Himachal Pradesh police’s closure report in a gang-rape case, giving the accused a clean chit for the second time in less than a year.
The court had earlier accepted a similar closure report 12 March 2025, which was subsequently challenged by the complainant in the Solan district and sessions court.
The case originated with a First Information Report (FIR) registered at the Kasauli police station 13 December 2024, nearly 17 months after the alleged incident 3 July 2023.
In her complaint, the woman, a 28-year-old from Delhi, alleged that she was visiting Kasauli as a tourist with her friend and her employer when she met Badoli and Mittal at a hotel.
According to the FIR accessed by ThePrint earlier, the complainant alleged that Mittal promised her a role in his music album, while Badoli offered her a government job.
She alleged that the two men coerced her into consuming alcohol, gang-raped her in the presence of her friend, and recorded compromising photos and videos.
The victim claimed that the two men threatened to eliminate her if she reported the incident and even allegedly attempted to get her booked in a false case at Panchkula in a bid to stop her from reporting the matter to the police.
Badoli and Mittal were booked under Sections 376D (gang rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Also read: Haryana BJP chief, singer Rocky Mittal booked in Kasauli for gang-rape, criminal intimidation
Police investigation and closure report
The Kasauli police investigated the case for over two months but found no corroborating evidence to substantiate the allegations.
According to the police, the complainant refused a medical examination when called by the investigating officer. An inordinate delay of over 17 months in reporting the matter to the police hindered the collection of critical evidence, such as CCTV footage, alcohol glasses, or bedsheets from the hotel.
The complainant had cited one of her friends as an eyewitness in her complaint. However, the friend didn’t support the allegations and denied the incident when she appeared before the court.
On 4 February 2025, the Kasauli police filed a closure report before the court.
First court acceptance and revision petition
After receipt of the closure report 18 February, the court of the additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM), Kasauli, directed the woman to appear 6 March. The court issued summons to the woman for 12 March as well after she failed to appear on the first date.
ACJM Kasauli Prashant Singh Negi observed that the summons issued to the victim on the address mentioned in her complaint filed before police returned unserved with a report that the house was found locked.
On 12 March, 2025, the Kasauli court accepted the cancellation report.
Counter-FIR and extortion allegations
On 6 February, 2025, Rocky Mittal filed a counter-FIR against the complainant and her two associates at the Sector 5 police station in Panchkula, accusing them of extortion.
Mittal alleged in his complaint that the woman and her associates had made telephonic threats to him between 1 September and 18 September 2024, demanding Rs 50 lakh and threatened to falsely implicate him and Badoli in a honey-trap case if their demands were not met.
He claimed the accused were part of a racket of organised crime that extorted money from people by preparing fake videos using artificial intelligence tools.
Following this complaint, the woman’s two associates were arrested by the Panchkula police for alleged extortion in early February. The complainant was granted anticipatory bail by a Panchkula court 12 March, with the judge noting that she had family responsibilities and nothing was to be recovered from her.
Solan sessions court intervention
The woman claimed she was on the run since the extortion case was registered against her on February 6 at Panchkula and therefore couldn’t attend the Kasauli court hearings 6 March and 12 March. She claimed the fear of arrest prevented her from appearing in court to counter the police’s closure report.
The complainant challenged the Kasauli court’s 12 March order accepting the closure report in the Solan sessions court by way of a revision petition 1 April.
On 15 July, sessions judge Arvind Malhotra allowed the revision petition, declaring the Kasauli court’s order accepting the closure report as having been passed without ensuring the complainant’s presence and without giving her an adequate opportunity to file objections.
The judge observed that the woman was not served with summons through affixation as ordered by the ACJM, Kasauli, and adequate efforts were not made by the Kasauli court to locate her address.
The sessions court directed the Kasauli court to allow the woman to file her objections to the closure report and record her statement by 30 July, and then decide whether to uphold the police closure report or reopen the case against Rocky Mittal and Badoli.
Second hearing and Thursday’s order
Following the Solan sessions court’s directions, the matter was listed before the Kasauli court for the complainant to record her statement and file objections to the closure report.
However, according to the police, the woman once again failed to appear before the court during the proceedings.
On Thursday, the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Kasauli accepted the cancellation report for the second time after police stated that no evidence could be collected to substantiate the allegations and the complainant failed to appear despite being given the opportunity by the sessions court.
Badoli didn’t respond to calls and messages by ThePrint for comment. Badoli has earlier dismissed the woman’s allegations as baseless and politically motivated.
Rocky Mittal, whose real name is Jai Bhagwan, was a publicity adviser from 2016 to 2017 in the BJP government in Haryana then led by Manohar Lal Khattar. He was the project director in a newly created ‘Ek Aur Sudhar’ cell in the Haryana government from 2017 till 2020 before being removed, allegedly over his style of functioning.
Contacted by ThePrint on his phone Friday, Rocky Mittal said that the complainant had lodged this case only to blackmail him and tarnish Badoli’s image at the behest of his political opponents.
Badoli, 61, is from Badoli village in Haryana’s Sonipat district. He was elected to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha from the Rai Assembly seat in 2019. The BJP fielded Badoli in the Lok Sabha elections in May 2024 from the Sonipat seat but he lost to Congress candidate Satpal Brahamchari.
ThePrint tried to contact the complainant on her mobile number mentioned in the FIR. However, the calls on the number were currently not being received, said a recorded message. This report will be updated if and when she responds.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Rocky Mittal backs BJP again, says Congress leaders didn’t help him with ‘false’ gang rape case