The Supreme Court Friday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh Government on a plea seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into an alleged rape of a junior female lawyer by the government’s counsel in his office.
The plea filed by the victim’s friend also sought a direction to remove all information related to the victim and her family members, which is available on the internet in violation of Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which prohibits the disclosure of the identity of a rape victim and makes such disclosure a punishable offence.
It is stated in the plea that the FIR filed against the accused person had been shared on social media platforms thereby revealing the identity of the victim alongwith personal information of her family members.
“Many advocates and other individuals started visiting the victim and her family members in order to get a compromise done between the victim and the accused”, the plea stated.
A three-judge bench of Justices Rohinton F Nariman, Naveen Sinha and Indira Banerjee after hearing advocate Utkarsh Singh for the petitioner directed the UP government to file its reply in the matter.
The plea also alleged that the delay caused by the UP police in lodging the FIR and the manner in which investigation had been conducted till now had shaken the confidence of the victim.
The petitioner contended that the accused advocate has not been arrested till now and there was a possibility there would be no fair trial in the matter if the investigation and the trial was not sifted out of Uttar Pradesh.
“The victim approached advocates for filing the writ in the High Court of Allahabad at Lucknow bench but due to the clout of the accused being an advocate with long standing and also being related to powerful politician in the government is unable to file the same”, the petition said.
On August 6, the apex court had stayed the Allahabad High Court’s order to the extent that it restrained the police from arresting the Government counsel Shailendra Singh Chauhan.
Read the Supreme Court’s order on CBI plea
http://theleaflet.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/16013_2020_34_24_23503_Order_21-Aug-2020.pdf
