Suspended Telugu Desam Party MLA from Satyavedu assembly constituency Koneti Adimoolam on Tuesday filed a petition in the Andhra Pradesh high court, seeking quashing of case filed against him by the Tirupati police in connection with a sexual assault case.
Adimoolam, in his petition, argued that the police had registered a case of rape and criminal intimidation against him, without conducting any preliminary enquiry and investigating into the allegations made by the woman in her complaint.
Describing it as a honey trap by the woman who sought to blackmail him, the suspended MLA wanted the court to take into account why she had taken nearly one and a half month, if the incident had really happened in July.
Adimoolam said he was 72 years old and had undergone angioplasty with an implant of stent in his heart. There was no way he could assault the woman sexually, he argued.
Last week, the woman addressed a press conference in Hyderabad and released video clippings of a sting operation done by her while he was sexually abusing her, supposedly at a hotel in Tirupati.
The videos went viral on social media and were also highlighted in the local television channels. After getting a preliminary report from the local party leaders, TDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu ordered the suspension of Adimoolam.
Later, the Tirupati police registered a case against the MLA based on the complaint and also inspecting the CCTV footage from the hotel, besides gathering statements from the hotel authorities.
The woman alleged that she was sexually assaulted thrice by the MLA in July, who had blackmailed her stating that she and her family members would be killed if she revealed it to anyone.
The woman said during the recent assembly elections, Adimoolam had taken her phone number.
“Subsequently, he had called me several times and started making sexual advances. “Last month, he called me to a hotel room in Tirupati, where he sexually assaulted me,” she alleged.
Adimoolam, a sitting MLA from the Satyavedu constituency from Tirupati district joined the TDP in January after quitting from YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) who had refused to issue a ticket during the assembly elections.