The Delhi police on Friday told the Rouse Avenue court that there is enough evidence against outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for him to be put on trial in the sexual harassment case filed by women wrestlers.
Public prosecutor Atul Srivastava submitted before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Harjeet Singh Jaspal that charges must be framed against Mr. Singh and co-accused Vinod Tomar for the offences mentioned in the chargesheet.
The Delhi police had filed a 1,000-page chargesheet on June 15 against the accused for offences under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), and 354D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code.
Mr. Srivastava also said the submissions made by advocate Rajiv Mohan, the counsel for the accused, were not meritorious. Referring to the Supreme Court’s judgment in Sartaj Khan vs the State of Uttarakhand following a criminal appeal filed in 2018, the public prosecutor submitted in the court: “....qua submissions made by the defence in reference to Section 188 of the CrPC, it is submitted that the bar of Section 188 is applicable when the offence is committed outside India in its entirety and not otherwise”.
He argued that the court will have jurisdiction to put Mr. Singh on trial as the offences in question were partly committed in Delhi. He further said since the matter at hand falls under Section 354 of the IPC, with recourse to Section 468(3) of the CrPC, there can be no questions on the bar of limitation as submitted by the defence counsel.
“The oversight committee report that has exonerated the accused is merely a departmental inquiry and it does not bar the jurisdiction of this court,” Mr. Srivastava said, adding that the court is duty-bound to only study the material on record in the strict brackets of prima facie scrutiny and a mini trial cannot be conducted at this stage.
The court will now hear the matter further on August 19, when the advocate for the complainants is likely to make arguments on the point of charge.
