New Delhi: The bail cancellation hearing against the woman who has accused Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment has been deferred to 23 May.
The case came up for hearing before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Khurana at the Patiala House Courts in New Delhi Wednesday, but was deferred as the complainant, Naveen Kumar, did not appear before the court. The court was informed that the investigating officer didn’t serve the notice to the complainant.
The woman, a former Supreme Court staffer who has alleged that CJI Gogoi sexually harassed her in October last year, stands accused of cheating under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Meanwhile, V.K. Ohri and Pawan Madan, counsels for the woman, have filed two more applications for the release of properties belonging to her, including two mobile phones, a digital video recorder (DVR) and a computer hard disk. The court disposed of the applications as “withdrawn” after the advocates submitted that they would file the applications again at an appropriate time if need be.
The police, represented by inspector Mukesh Antil, denied that no seizure memo was provided for one of the mobile phones of the accused’s husband.
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The case in question
After Naveen Kumar’s FIR on 3 March, the woman was arrested from Rajasthan on 9 March, sent to judicial custody on 11 March, and released on bail the next day.
Kumar alleged that the woman had demanded Rs 10 lakh to get him a Class IV job (process server) at the Supreme Court. For this, she allegedly accepted an amount of Rs 50,000.
Kumar claimed that the accused failed to execute the deal and he didn’t hear from her for another three months. He said he then met her at the Supreme Court to enquire about his employment status, and alleged that he was told not to meet her. He even claimed she threatened to implicate him in a false case.
The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police took over the investigation when Kumar wrote to its DCP on 9 April that he was being threatened by the woman and her allies. After this, the investigation officer moved court this Monday for the cancellation of the bail granted to the accused. However, since she was not present before the court, the hearing was deferred to Wednesday.
Advocate Vijay Kaushik, another counsel for the woman, has said the case is a way to intimidate and harass her through the Delhi Police, which itself has been put under pressure.
Allegations against CJI Gogoi
The 35-year-old woman has accused CJI Gogoi of sexually harassing her in October last year. Gogoi has refuted the allegations strongly, and suggested that a “bigger force” was behind the charges.
It was decided Monday that a panel of three SC judges headed by Justice S.A. Bobde will inquire into the accusations made by the woman.
Also read: Sr Gujarat lawyer & activists call out CJI Gogoi for ‘sexual abuse’ hearing against himself
This report has been corrected to reflect that the complainant did not appear before the court.
She is now under the protection – in a sense – of the Committee headed by Justice Bobde. It would be better if her bail continues, she is in a position to prepare for her deposition, appears before the Committee as a normal citizen would.