The Supreme Court on Thursday protected Punjab’s Lok Insaaf party MLA Simarjit Singh Bains for a week in a case of alleged rape.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana pulled up the State government, expressing its dissatisfaction to Advocate General D.S. Patwalia about its conduct in the prosecution of the case.
The court also berated Mr. Bains, asking his lawyer, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, whether he has read the contents of a counter petition filed by the alleged victim against the MLA.
"Have you seen that? How is your man harassing people... He is a two-time MLA... Is this the way an MLA should behave?" the CJI asked Mr. Rohatgi.
‘Job racket’
Mr. Rohatgi argued that the complainant was running a "job racket", enticing people to go to Canada for employment. Complaints had been filed against her by other people and she was under the impression that Mr. Bains was behind the allegations against her.
“We will give one week’s protection to you from arrest. You [Punjab] don’t arrest the MLA for a week,” the CJI addressed Mr. Patwalia, while issuing notice to the State on the MLA’s anticipatory bail plea.
The court ordered the case to be listed after a week. It also granted relief for the woman, staying the cases instituted against for a period of two weeks.
