Court grants bail to actor Ashish Kapoor in rape case
New Delhi, Sep 14 (PTI): A Delhi court has granted bail to TV actor Ashish Kapoor in a rape case, saying he could not be kept incarcerated merely because the Delhi Police thought that he could commit a similar offence in future.
Additional Sessions Judge Bhupinder Singh was hearing the bail plea of Kapoor, against whom the Civil Lines police station had registered an FIR of penal provisions of rape, voluntarily causing hurt and common intention for an alleged incident dated August 9.
In an order dated September 10, the court said, "It is not the case (of the prosecution) that the accused or applicant is required for the purpose of investigation any more. The accused cannot be kept behind bars just for the reason that the police apprehends that he may commit a similar offence in future."
The court said the prosecution has underlined that the complainant could be threatened by the accused or he may flee from justice, but no action had been taken on the woman's complaint that she was approached on behalf of the accused, just 10 days after the alleged incident.
The court said two co-accused persons in the case have been granted bail earlier, and if the police were genuinely concerned that the complainant could be influenced, it would have challenged the relief.
"Further, the police did not even serve notice for appearance to the accused (Kapoor) for joining the investigation except on August 30, i.e., after three weeks of the incident.
"No efforts were made to make the accused join the investigation for a good 21 days, and all of a sudden, the police served the notice, with direction to join the investigation forthwith, and as per the Investigating Officer (IO), a police team was sent to Goa/Pune to arrest the accused simultaneously," the court said.
Kapoor was arrested within three days on September 2, and if the accused wanted to abscond, he would have done so immediately after the case was registered, it said.
"In fact, anticipatory bail application on his behalf was moved on September 2, only after the service of notice on August, with the direction to join the investigation immediately and not before that," the court said.
It said that Kapoor could not be expected to remain in his house at all times in the hope that the police may come any time.
The court said Kapoor had been quizzed in police custody for three days. But no sincere efforts were made to recover the mobile phone, neither were searches carried out, it added.
"Besides, there was nothing to suggest that the accused did not cooperate in the investigation," the court said.
"No previous involvement of the accused in any offence whatsoever has been brought to the notice of the court. The investigations, filing of police report, and further proceedings may take some time, and no purpose shall be served by keeping the accused behind bars," it said.
The woman's complaint that she was approached by people known to the accused can be taken care of by imposing appropriate conditions, it added.
"Thus, in view of the aforesaid observations and discussions, the facts and circumstances that have been brought to the notice of the court in view of the documents/ CCTV footages, in particular that the accused/applicant is not required for investigation any more, being permanent resident of Delhi and his clean antecedents, I find merits in the bail application and the same is accordingly allowed," judge Singh said.
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Trouble ‘Miyas’ everywhere only then they will leave Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Says “Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP are openly against them, we are saying it openly
New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that four to five lakh “Miya voters” would be removed from the electoral rolls in the state once the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists is carried out. He also made a series of controversial remarks openly targeting the Miya community, a term commonly used in Assam in a derogatory sense to refer to Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official programme in Digboi in Tinsukia district, Sarma said it was his responsibility to create difficulties for the Miya community and claimed that both he and the BJP were “directly against Miyas”.
“Four to five lakh Miya votes will have to be deleted in Assam when the SIR happens,” Sarma said, adding that such voters “should ideally not be allowed to vote in Assam, but in Bangladesh”. He asserted that the government was ensuring that they would not be able to vote in the state.
The chief minister was responding to questions about notices issued to thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims during the claims and objections phase of the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in Assam. While the Election Commission is conducting SIR exercises in 12 states and Union Territories, Assam is currently undergoing an SR, which is usually meant for routine updates.
Calling the current SR “preliminary”, Sarma said that a full-fledged SIR in Assam would lead to large-scale deletion of Miya voters. He said he was unconcerned about criticism from opposition parties over the issue.
“Let the Congress abuse me as much as they want. My job is to make the Miya people suffer,” Sarma said. He claimed that complaints filed against members of the community were done on his instructions and that he had encouraged BJP workers to keep filing complaints.
“I have told people wherever possible they should fill Form 7 so that they have to run around a little and are troubled,” he said, adding that such actions were meant to send a message that “the Assamese people are still living”.
In remarks that drew further outrage, Sarma urged people to trouble members of the Miya community in everyday life, claiming that “only if they face troubles will they leave Assam”. He also accused the media of sympathising with the community and warned journalists against such coverage.
“So you all should also trouble, and you should not do news that sympathise with them. There will be love jihad in your own house.” He said.
The comments triggered reactions from opposition leaders. Raijor Dal president and MLA Akhil Gogoi said the people of Assam had not elected Sarma to keep one community under constant pressure. Congress leader Aman Wadud accused the chief minister of rendering the Constitution meaningless in the state, saying his remarks showed a complete disregard for constitutional values.
According to the draft electoral rolls published on December 27, Assam currently has 2.51 crore voters. Election officials said 4.78 lakh names were marked as deceased, 5.23 lakh as having shifted, and 53,619 duplicate entries were removed during the revision process. Authorities also claimed that verification had been completed for over 61 lakh households.
On January 25, six opposition parties the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) submitted a memorandum to the state’s chief electoral officer. They alleged widespread legal violations, political interference and selective targeting of genuine voters during the SR exercise, describing it as arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional.
