Payal Tadvi case: Crime branch allowed to quiz 3 women doctors
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court Thursday refused to grant crime branch the custody of three women doctors arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of their junior colleague, but allowed it to interrogate them for four days.
A single bench of Justice S S Shinde said the crime branch can take the three accused from the Byculla Jail for questioning during daytime.
"The arrested accused shall be taken from jail, where they are lodged today (Thursday) from 2 pm to 6 pm, and from 9 am to 6 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for interrogation," the court said.
The crime branch had earlier this week approached the HC seeking custody of the three doctors - Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Meher and Ankita Khandelwal.
The trio, attached to the B Y L Nair Hospital here, were arrested last week on the charges of abetment of suicide of their junior colleague Dr Payal Tadvi.
A special court had on Friday last remanded them to judicial custody after rejecting the police plea for further custody.
Crime branch counsel Raja Thakare told the court on Thursday that it was handed over the probe in the case the day the lower court sent the three accused to judicial custody and hence it did not get an opportunity to interrogate them.
Advocate Aabad Ponda, appearing for the three accused, opposed the plea and said the accused persons were ready to cooperate with the investigation and can be taken from the jail daily for questioning.
"The bail pleas filed by the accused are listed before the special court on June 10. The crime branch has three days time to question them and send them back to jail by the evening," Ponda said.
The court, while agreeing to this said, "The accused persons are medical officers and are making themselves available for interrogation. They are not habitual offenders or hardcore criminals."
The court added that the crime branch, during its interrogation of the three accused should, keep these factors in mind.
Referring to the special court order remanding the three accused to judicial custody, Justice Shinde said, "The lower court has said the police did not do anything for two days when the three accused were in their custody."
"The state realises that it is a sensitive case, then when such an offence takes place why does the police not entrust investigations into the case to a senior officer immediately," Justice Shinde said.
Ponda claimed the three accused had only pulled up the deceased for not performing her duty in the hospital and shirking work.
"The accused and the victim were attached to the women and child department of the hospital which is considered as a very sensitive department. Any lapse or flaw on part of the doctors there would result in serious consequences. The victim had on several occasions made mistakes in her reports," Ponda claimed.
The accused have been booked under relevant section of the IPC and under the Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
