Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has granted anticipatory bail to Bhopal's Deputy Collector Rajesh Sorte, accused in the rape case, but when will he return to office remains unclear as none of the officers of the Collectorate has answer to this.

Sorte was on leave till 30 November, he had also applied for it, but after that he remained on leave without application till  December 10. Neither the application reached the Collector nor it was received by branch in-charge.

Branch in-charge and Joint Collector Iqbal Mohammad said Deputy Collector Sorte's leave application was till 30 November. The branch has not received the application after this.

After the victim's complaint a case has been registered against Deputy Collector Sorte in Pachor police station of Rajgarh district on November 14 on the charge of rape.

A woman had complained against Sorte on October 25. The police had taken the matter under investigation and when police failed to register a case even after 19 days, on November 14, the victim lodged an e-FIR on the portal.

The Deputy Collector was not coming to the office since the case was registered. His leave application was also not received after November 30. On the other hand, his chamber opens every day, but the chair remains vacant.

An anticipatory bail petition was filed by Deputy Collector Sorte in the Sarangpur court. It was rejected by the court. After getting information about the case, the former Chief Minister had issued letters. After this, a petition was filed in the High Court. From here, anticipatory bail was granted on December 10.

The case has been registered, so information was not given

If the officers are to be believed, they have come to know about the case being registered against Sorte through the media only. No official information has been received from the police.

However, since the case was registered, the charge of Sorte has been handed over to other officers, so that the work is not affected. Other works including public hearing were the responsibility of Sorte.

Former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has issued two letters in this case demanding arrest and suspension. He has written one letter to the Additional Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh Government and the other letter to Rajgarh SP.

In this, he had demanded suspension of the Deputy Collector by conducting a departmental inquiry for violating the Civil Services Conduct Act.