Dhanbad court has allowed BJP MLA Dullu Mahto to cast his vote in the Rajya Sabha election scheduled on Wednesday.

Mahto has been behind bars since May 21. The court of Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate Shikha Agarwal granted Mahto the permission to vote, while hearing his provisional bail petition. The judge has made this concession on condition that the jail administration take him to Ranchi on wednesday, and bring him back to jail the same day after the election.

Mahto, who is the Baghmara MLA, is quite crucial for the BJP in this election, to ensure their number doesn’t dip to 25 from 26.

Mahto’s petition for provisional bail was rejected by the court on May 15, compelling him to file an intervention petition in the High Court.

Meanwhile, the Dhanbad court took cognizance of Mahto’s letter to Dhanbad jail administration on Tuesday, allowing him to cast his ballot.

He surrendered in court on May 11 in connection with a case lodged by Baghmara resident Doman Mahto, his neighbour, on February 14 in Barora Police station against him and his elder brother Sarad Mahto and others. They have been accused of beating Sarad, and his family members, and trying to kill him by flashing a pistol. Sarad was trying to establish a shop along with his father Kanhai Mahto near the Ramraj temple at Chitahi Village of Baghmara on April 29, 2019 on his own land.

The police lodged an FIR on basis of the complaint on February 15 and subsequently issued an arrest warrant on February 18. Police raided Mahto’s house in the wee hours of February 19, and couldn't arrest him.

A total of 33 cases have been filed against Mahto. He has secured bail in majority of these cases, which include one filed by Rajiv Kumar Srivastava, nephew of former mines minister OP Lal, on March 2 in Barora Police station, under different sections of the IPC, including 147 (rioting).

Mahto is still awaiting bail in connection with a rape case lodged by a Katras resident named Kamla Devi.

A former president of the women’s wing of the BJP’s Katras, Kamla, in her online complaint filed on November 23, 2018, said Mahto called her on November 15, 2018, asking to meet him at the Hindustan Zinc Factory guest house at Tundu in Baghmara. When she visited him a week later, he tried to grab her in presence of a BJP Katras unit worker Anand Sharma and one another person Ayodhya Thakur, and later raped her. After Kamla managed to escape the guest house, she informed her husband Rajeev Kumar.

Dhanbad police lodged an FIR against Dhullu Mahto on October 4, 2019, after Kamla Devi moved the high court for citing deliberate delay in lodging of FIR on her complaint. On August 28, 2019, the court directed Dhanbad Police to lodge FIR against the Baghmara MLA and also sought the reasons for the delay.