New Delhi, Sep 4 (IANS): A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court on Thursday challenging the anticipatory bail granted to Gayatri Parivar head Pranav Pandya in a case related to the alleged rape of a tribal girl in 2010.

The Uttarakhand High Court had granted interim protection from arrest to Pandya. The petition, which is likely to come up for hearing in the next few days, has challenged the May 21 order of the high court.

"The findings rendered by the high court were not at all warranted as the investigation into the case was at initial stage inasmuch the FIR was registered on May 9 only and the high court interfered by the impugned order on May 21," said the plea.

A case was registered against the accused under Sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC at a local police station.

The victim hails from a village in Chhattisgarh and had gone to the 'Santikunj Ashram', which is run by Pandya, as her family members were devotees of the Gayatri Parivar.

The plea said the victim, who was then a minor, was raped three times in 2010 over a few weeks and the accused had warned her against divulging the details of the incident.

According to the plea, the victim informed Shailbala Pandya (wife of Pranav Pandya and a co-accused in the case) after third the incident of rape.

"She also threatened her not to disclose about the incident to anybody, otherwise she will be defamed in the Ashram as well as the society," the plea said.

The plea contended that the police initially declined to register an FIR, but after assistance from the Delhi Commission of Women and an NGO, People Against Rapes in India, and its founder, a zero FIR was registered at Vivek Vihar in Delhi earlier this year. This FIR was later transferred to the Kotwali police station in Haridwar.