Sleaze CD: K’taka HC allows woman to record statement in court

IANS

Bengaluru, 30 Mar 2021: The legal counsel of the woman in the ‘Sleaze CD case’ on Monday said that he has obtained an order from the Karnataka High Court to produce the rape victim before a local court.

 

Lawyer Jagadesh K.N. Mahadev told reporters that the order does not specifically mention the exact date or time to produce her before the court.

 

Meanwhile, police had deployed heavy security at the magistrate court here on Monday expecting that the woman would appear to record her statement.

 

Two DCPs, five ACPs, 10 Inspectors and 100 police personnel had been deployed on the court premises.

 

However, Mahadev said: “We will cooperate with the SIT only after she gives the statement before the magistrate. We request the police to provide her security.”

 

The woman continues to express her views either through video clips or through written statements from undisclosed locations even as SIT officials are trying to track her down.

 

In a three-page letter, dated March 28, the woman has requested the Chief Justice to direct the state government to provide her protection.

 

In the letter, she has stated that she is a rape victim and has filed a complaint against former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi. “Jarkiholi is an highly influential person and has already threatened me in public of going to any extent against me,” she has alleged.

 

“I have already expressed my apprehension that there is a threat to myself and my parents from Ramesh Jarkiholi and I have requested the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to provide security for myself and my parents,” she has stated.

 

“I am, on my own will and wish, fighting for justice against an influential person, it is me who is suffering. I have to fight for my dignity and womanhood. Statement made through my parents that I am kidnapped is baseless. This is my fight, not anybody’s. My family is in the captivity of Ramesh Jarkiholi.”

 

Jarkiholi was forced to quit on March 3 after the woman accused him of demanding sexual favours in exchange for giving her a job.

 

The former minister filed a complaint against unknown persons on March 13, accusing them of framing him as he had been contending that the CD was “fake” and he was innocent.

 

Pursuant to a complaint by the victim, an FIR was lodged against Jarkiholi at Cubbon Park Police Station here for offences under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 376(c) (sexual intercourse by a person in authority) and 417 (punishment for cheating) of the Indian Penal Code along with Section 67(A) (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc, in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.