Bombay High Court Allows Bhushan Kumar To Withdraw Plea In Alleged Rape Case

The Bombay High Court on Thursday permitted Bhushan Kumar, Managing Director of T-series,  to withdraw plea seeking quashing of a first information report (FIR) against him in an alleged rape case, observing that a magistrate had accepted a closure report by the police. 

The B Summary report

Kumar’s advocate Niranjan Mundargi informed a division bench of Justices PD Naik and NR Borkar that on November 9, the Magistrate court at Andheri had accepted a B-summary report (closure report) filed by the police. A B-summary report is filed when police have either found no prima facie evidence or that the FIR was maliciously filed.

Once the magistrate accepted the closure report, the FIR is closed. This makes the quashing petition infructuous, Mundargi said. Accordingly, the bench permitted Kumar to withdraw the plea. 

The FIR against Kumar

In July 2021, an FIR was filed against Kumar citing incidents that had allegedly been taking place since 2017. Initially, a closure report was filed in 2022. 

However, a protest petition was filed against the closure report by a  local politician Mallikarjun Pujari claiming he had helped the complainant register the FIR but she had later backtracked and granted her consent to close the proceedings.

Hence the closure report was rejected by the magistrate which Kumar approached the HC. The police then again filed a closure report which was accepted by the magistrate.