Gangrape case: Ex-Andaman & Nicobar Chief Secretary Jitendra Narain arrested

Narain, who will face custodial interrogation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) arrange by the A&N police, is anticipated to be produced in court docket on Friday.

On October 1, Narain and A&N Labour Commissioner R L Rishi have been named in an FIR filed on the Aberdeen police station in Port Blair, primarily based on the grievance of a 21-year-old lady. Both Narain and Rishi have since been suspended.

As reported by The Indian Express on October 15, the lady in Port Blair had accused Narain and Rishi of sexual assault and gangrape on the Chief Secretary’s official residence, alleging that they’d lured her with the promise of a authorities job.

On October 28, The Indian Express reported that the SIT had discovered proof and recorded key witness statements pointing to an alleged job-for-sex racket, as a part of which over 20 girls are alleged to have been taken to Narain’s residence in Port Blair throughout his year-long tenure and a few of them are mentioned to have gotten jobs in lieu of being sexually exploited.

Saying that the allegations have been “grave and heinous in nature”, District and Sessions Judge Subhash Kumar Kar on Thursday mentioned “the need of custodial interrogation… cannot be ruled out for the interest of proper and impartial investigation”.

The court docket emphasised that the accused was a high-ranking bureaucrat who held the cost of chief secretary, and his “power and position cannot be equated with a man of common strata”.

On October 1, Narain and A&N Labour Commissioner R L Rishi have been named in an FIR filed on the Aberdeen police station in Port Blair, primarily based on the grievance of a 21-year-old lady. Both Narain and Rishi have since been suspended. (Twitter/@jitendra_narain)

Detailing the character of the grievance, the choose famous that “penetrative sexual assault” was dedicated on the lady on two events.

During the over two-hour-long listening to, the general public prosecutor showing for the UT administration and the lawyer representing the lady voiced apprehensions about Narain tampering with essential proof and influencing key witnesses.

“The judge spent plenty of time going through the case diaries and testimonies of the witnesses and was convinced that custodial interrogation was required,” P C Das, the lady’s lawyer, informed The Indian Express from Port Blair.

The court docket, in its order, famous the state’s competition that though Narain had appeared earlier than the SIT, he was “not cooperating with the investigation in any manner”, which made his custodial interrogation important.

It additionally famous that the opposite two accused within the case, Rishi and Rinku, a lodge proprietor, have been absconding because the time of submitting of the FIR, and their bail pleas had been rejected by the court docket in Port Blair. The A&N police have introduced Rs 1 lakh reward for info on every of the 2 individuals.

On Narain’s allegations of a “criminal conspiracy” towards him, the court docket famous that the listening to on Thursday was to deduce whether or not his custodial interrogation was required, and it was now as much as him to reveal and set up such issues if the case goes to trial.

Narain approached the Sessions Court after the Supreme Court, on Monday, requested him to strategy the jurisdictional court docket within the A&N Islands for anticipatory bail.

On October 20, the Delhi High Court had granted Narain interim safety from arrest until October 28. The subsequent day, he approached the Calcutta High Court circuit bench, sitting at Port Blair, looking for extension of time, saying the subsequent circuit bench would begin solely on November 14, by which period the safety granted to him can be over. In its October 21 order, the circuit bench continued the aid and requested him to seem earlier than the SIT probing the case.

The UT administration then approached the Supreme Court, difficult the anticipatory bail granted to him. It mentioned that Narain’s choice to strategy the Delhi HC and Calcutta HC “instead of… the jurisdiction Sessions Court at Port Blair, with a plea that no forum was available to him on account of vacation, is nothing but a blatant attempt of forum shopping and abuse of process of law”.

Appearing for the UT administration, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had mentioned the assertion given by the lady to the Justice of the Peace underneath CrPC Section 164 had already been corroborated by unbiased witnesses. He additionally mentioned that the accused had “already tampered with evidence”.

He identified that the co-accused within the case had gone to the jurisdictional court docket within the UT, which had denied aid.

Appearing for Narain, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi mentioned the allegation of rape was of April 14, and that Narain was on an official go to to Delhi from April 11 to April 18.