Delhi court orders arrest of advocate accused of raping lawyer

A Delhi court denied interim relief to a lawyer accused of raping a colleague and ordered his immediate custody amid ongoing legal proceedings.

A Delhi court on Wednesday refused to grant interim relief to a Delhi-based 51-year-old advocate accused of raping a woman lawyer and later pressuring her to withdraw the complaint. The court ordered that he be taken into custody forthwith.

The charge sheet in the case was filed on September 16 without his arrest.

The order was passed by additional sessions judge (fast-track court) Nitin Phutela at Saket courts. “Considering the conduct of the accused/applicant… no ground is made out for grant of interim relief. Accused be taken into custody. Let custody warrants be prepared accordingly,” the court said. The matter has been listed for hearing on the accused’s regular bail plea on February 26.

Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for the accused, sought interim protection, submitting that his client would appear before the court on the next date. Additional public prosecutor Dinesh Kumar Singh opposed the plea, arguing that despite directions from higher courts, the accused had failed to surrender within the stipulated time. The prosecutor also submitted that the accused is involved in two other FIRs for rape and that his anticipatory bail was earlier rejected due to allegations of threat and inducement to the complainant.

On November 7 last year, justice Amit Mahajan of the Delhi high court cancelled the advocate’s anticipatory bail, observing that he had attempted to pay the complainant through judicial officers, which amounted to an “egregious affront” to the principles of justice. The Supreme Court subsequently dismissed his challenge and granted him two weeks to surrender before the trial court.

ASJ Phutela noted that despite the dismissal of his petitions by both the high court and the Supreme Court, the accused neither surrendered nor appeared before the magistrate or trial court.

The charge sheet in the case was filed on September 16 without his arrest. A magistrate took cognisance on January 14 and committed the matter to the sessions court.

Meanwhile, the accused has again approached the Delhi high court seeking anticipatory bail and quashing of the FIR; the plea is pending.

Separately, the Delhi high court had ordered an administrative inquiry into allegations by the complainant that two district judges pressured her to withdraw the case. The high court had, in a full court meeting on August 29, suspended one of the district judges, Sanjeev Kumar Singh, and recommended disciplinary proceedings against him and another judge, Anil Kumar, based on the woman’s allegations.