Jaipur, Jan 10 (IANS): Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday refused to hear the petition filed for early hearing of former Barmer MLA Mevaram Jain and ordered it to be sent to another bench.

The victim had filed an application in the High Court for early hearing. On January 8, an order was issued to present the case on January 10.

However, on Wednesday, the Justice Kuldeep Mathur referred the case to another bench.

A case was registered against the former Congress MLA Mevaram Jain under POCSO, SC ST Act at Rajiv Gandhi Police Station of Jodhpur Police Commissionerate West. A petition was also filed in the High Court on behalf of Mevaram to cancel the FIR. On December 22, the court had banned the arrest of Mevaram Jain and others and ordered cooperation in the investigation. The next hearing of the case has been fixed for January 25.

The victim had filed a case of gang rape under 18 sections including POCSO Act against nine people including former MLA Mevaram Jain. In the FIR registered on December 20, the names of Mevaram, Ramswaroop Acharya, Kotwal Gangaram Khawa, Dawood Khan, Barmer DCP Anand Singh Rajpurohit, Barmer Principal Representative Girdhar Singh Sodha, Municipal Council Deputy Chairman Surtan Singh, Praveen Sethia, Gopal Singh Rajpurohit were registered.