Award-winning playback singer Ankit Tiwari was arrested in May 2014 when his alleged girlfriend filed rape charges on him. She had made a complaint that he had raped her after he didn’t fulfil his promise of marrying her. The woman also accused the singer’s brother Ankur Tiwari of threatening her. He was given bail a few days after being arrested. However, yesterday he appeared in court with his two brothers.

Ankit Tiwari charged with IPC section 376:

On Saturday afternoon, Special Women’s Court judge A S Shende framed charges against playback singer Ankit Tiwari. He has been charged under sections 376 (rape), 493 (cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage), 417 (cheating) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. His brother Ankur also had charged framed against him.

The next hearing is slated for February 5, 2016. It’s expected that the first witness in the case will depose then. In January this year, Tiwari’s lawyers had filed a plea in the High Court asking that the case be squashed as the complainant and the accused had decided to settle the matter.

However, one of Tiwari’s defence lawyers, said, “We withdrew that application on Friday. The HC has directed us to file a discharge application within 15 days. On Saturday, while the Sessions court was framing the charges, we informed them about the High Court order but the court said that it couldn’t adjourn the matter and framed the charges. We are now going to challenge the same in the HC.”