Bangalore, Oct. 27: Cricketer Amit Mishra was arrested today on the charge of assaulting a woman friend but released on bail immediately.
A Bangalore police officer said Mishra was released because the penal code sections he had been charged under were bailable.
The city-based woman had accused the leg spinner of physically assaulting her at his hotel room on September 25 when the Indian cricket team was in town for a conditioning camp for the series against South Africa.
Mishra was questioned for three hours at Ashok Nagar police station, where the complaint had been registered. The arrest followed after the police formally charged Mishra with physically assaulting the woman and making sexually coloured remarks.
Deputy commissioner Sandeep Patil said Mishra was arrested and released immediately since the offences were bailable. According to the bail conditions, the cricketer must present himself before the police, if needed.
"We have taken action based on the complaint. The court will now decide the further course of action," Patil said. Although the woman had earlier said she would withdraw the complaint, the officer said such a move could only be made before a magistrate. "The complainant has not got in touch with us about withdrawing the complaint, which, in any case, can be done only before the magistrate," Patil said.
According to procedure, both parties must present themselves before the magistrate if the complainant wants to withdraw the case.
In her complaint, the woman had said she knew Mishra for nearly four years and had entered his hotel room while he was away at a practice session. When Mishra returned, he was enraged to find her in his room and, in the heated argument that followed, allegedly assaulted her.
The leggie faces charges of voluntarily causing hurt (IPC Section 323), voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons, in this case a kettle (Section 324), and use of criminal force with the intent of outraging a woman's modesty, in this case the sexually coloured remarks he allegedly made (Section 354).
All these sections are bailable.
