India, Sept. 29 -- A sessions court in Bhiwandi on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of former BJP MLA Narendra Pawar for gang-raping a 22-year-old married woman, holding that his custodial interrogation was necessary to recover a pistol, vehicle and mobile phone allegedly linked to the crime, besides obtaining CCTV footage from the farmhouse where the incident allegedly took place.

Pawar and dismissed police constable Shailesh Patil are accused of taking turns to rape the woman at Patil's farmhouse in Padgha, located in a secluded area along National Highway 3 between Bhiwandi and Kalyan, on September 13. Both remain untraceable, while Thane Rural Police have formed teams to locate them. Pawar's lawyer moved the court seeking p...