new delhi delhi high court on friday granted interim protection from arrest to a television journalist accused in a rape casethe court made the relief conditional on him joining the police investigationjustice mukta gupta also issued notice and sought responses of delhi police and the complainant woman on the journalists plea seeking anticipatory bail in the case petitioner be not arrested till the next date of hearing subject to him joining the investigation as and when directed the high court said while asking police to verify the documents that the accused will furnish and also to file a status report by april 16the accused moved hc after his earlier anticipatory bail plea was dismissed by a trial court on march 12 in her complaint the 22yearold woman alleged that she was raped by the accused at a fivestar hotel in chanakyapuri on february 20however the counsel for the accused maintained that there is a history of previous sexual relationship between the accused and the complainant when the womans lawyer urged the court not to grant any protection to the accused since he has been on the run for the last 50 days the high court said if the man has documents to show that the relationship was consensual let him join the investigation and police will verify itthe trial court while rejecting the journalists anticipatory bail plea had said that consent cannot be implied from the complainants previous experiences with the accused and if the woman stated in her evidence before the court that she did not consent the court shall presume that she did not