The letter was addressed to the Chief Justice and other judges of the Patna High Court. (Archive photo)
Lawyers across the country denounced the arrest of an alleged victim of gang rape in northern Bihar on Wednesday who was charged after a heckling inside the court premises where she appeared to have have his statement registered before a magistrate.
In a letter to the Chief Justice and other judges of the Patna High Court, 376 lawyers expressed concern over the manner in which the 22-year-old woman and two social workers who accompanied her to a district court d ‘Araria were recently placed in pre-trial detention. and sent to a prison in Dalsinghsarai, about 240 km away.
The letter, whose signers include figures like Indira Jaisingh, Prashant Bhushan and Vrinda Grover, expressed dissatisfaction when the victim appeared before the magistrate on July 10, the latter took his disoriented state of mind as a personal affront.
According to Ashish Ranjan Jha, the secretary of Jan Jagran Shakti Sansthan, the Araria-based social organization to which the imprisoned caregivers belonged, the incident took place on July 6.
She had left home to learn to ride an acquaintance’s motorcycle. Four of her friends seized her, while the acquaintance fled and raped her, according to the FIR she filed a day later, Mr. Jha told PTI by phone.
She was spotted by Sansthan workers who brought her home for the first time, but noting that her family members were unfriendly, agreed to take her and take care of her while she was away. was fighting for justice.
Our workers Kalyani Badola and Tanmay Nivedita – accompanied the victim on July 10 during his appearance before the magistrate. Some misunderstanding and a lack of communication seem to have led to the unfortunate situation afterwards, said Mr. Jha.
According to police sources, in the FIR filed by court personnel against the trio, the victim became agitated when asked to sign a transcript of the statement and insisted that Kalyani and Nivedita be called for a careful reading of the document.
Later, social workers also approached court personnel and asked to be shown a copy of their statement, which was rejected on the grounds of “legal restrictions” which led to an argument.
Upset by the din, the magistrate is said to have ordered a court staff member to file a complaint against him for contempt of court and under sections of the IPC for preventing an official from performing his or her duties.
A day later, the order to return them to police custody was adopted and they were sent to Dalsinghsarai prison in Samastipur district. We sought legal recourse today when we tried to file a lawsuit with the district court to learn that the premises had been closed for the next seven days due to the corona epidemic, said Jha.
Meanwhile, lawyers in their letter alleged that while reporting the case, local newspapers ended up disclosing the victim’s details and that no COVID test was done even though she was raped by several strangers.
In particular, Mr. Jha said that the trio had been sent to the distant prison due to a corona protocol under which no more than a specified number of people could be kept in a prison. Araria’s correctional center therefore could not accommodate them. We maintain that even without going into the different versions of the event that will invariably be presented to your Lordships, it is necessary to instill a little sensitivity in the incident and to see it from this angle, the
says the letter.
It was the fourth day since the gang rape incident. The survivor was completely distraught and disoriented and totally emotionally dependent on her caregivers who were also exhausted from caring for her. We respectfully submit that any perceived lack of respect should be viewed from this perspective, he said.
Revoking excessive and harsh custody of the survivor and her caregivers, the letter indicated that the extremely fragile emotional state of the veterans and the separation from her caregivers and incarceration would adversely affect her. health.
It also meant that the gang rape case was put on the back burner, with all attention focused on the alleged contempt. We pray that your Lordships will intervene in the case as it shows a complete lack of sensitivity towards a victim of violent sexual crimes and their carers, said the lawyers.
