E-Paper
Rape accused at large after phony bail release; court clerk inaccessible
The orchestrator of the forgery, identified as court clerk Ashwani, has declined to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.
KANPUR An individual accused of raping a minor girl has disappeared after securing a fraudulent bail order in the first week of August. As the issue of the sham bail release came to the fore on Monday, police were put on high alert. Currently, cops are conducting extensive raids to locate the accused.
The orchestrator of the forgery, identified as court clerk Ashwani, has declined to cooperate with the ongoing investigation. As of the time of reporting, Ashwani remained inaccessible, said Shiv Singh, the lead investigator on the case. Singh further noted, “The police are actively searching for him as well.”
As detailed in an FIR filed with the Kotwali police by the father of the rape victim, the court clerk (known as a ‘peshkar’) issued a counterfeit bail order for the release of the accused, Narendra Sachan. He had been incarcerated by the Gujaini police on June 8 on charges of rape and violations of the Pocso Act.
Sachan’s imprisonment had been prompted by accusations of raping a 13-year-old girl. Astonishingly, the victim observed the accused roaming freely during the initial week of August, despite his bail having been rejected by the Special Pocso court, presided over by Additional District Judge (ADJ) 25 on July 24. Notably, the court’s denial of bail had been uploaded online on the same day.
Refusing to accept that bail had been granted, the victim’s family conducted their own inquiry and uncovered that the court clerk had deceitfully transformed the bail rejection order into an approval order, as indicated by the father in the FIR.
Exploiting the forged bail order, the ‘parwana’ or release order was transmitted to the Kanpur district jail, which acted upon it. Jail records substantiate that Sachan was set free on August 2, merely two days following the retirement of the judge who had initially dismissed the bail plea.
“We are profoundly stunned; nobody within the family can imagine the audacity of this incident. This transgression is of the gravest nature, and strict action must be taken against the court clerk Ashwani, the unidentified lawyer, and the two accomplices,” said the victim’s father.
Ravindra Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) South, said that multiple teams are presently conducting raids at various locations in pursuit of Narendra Sachan’s arrest. Simultaneously, they are supporting the Kotwali police in their endeavour to address the court clerk’s involvement.
Meanwhile, Anand Prakash Tiwari, Joint Commissioner of Police, assured the public that the police are diligently pursuing the case and taking appropriate measures. He noted that the police have requested the court to review bail orders issued by the specific court where the clerk had been stationed over the past year, in order to ascertain whether similar schemes had been executed in the past.
