SC quashes chargesheet against ex-Army officer in rape case
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed a chargesheet against a former Army officer in an alleged rape case saying it was an "abuse of process of law".
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran granted the relief to Capt. Rakesh Walia (retired) noting that the Delhi High Court erred in its decision of not quashing the chargesheet.
Walia had challenged a Delhi High Court order dismissing his plea against the chargesheet.
Advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the complainant's testimony showed there was no offence and the FIR deserved to be quashed.
Dubey said the woman ran a "sextortion" racket and filed multiple FIRs against different persons, blackmailing them for money.
He submitted that a wrongful and malicious prosecution was initiated against his client.
Dubey said seven FIRs against nine different people, including the petitioner, at seven different police stations, were registered at her instance in the last eight years.
The high court in its order on July 31, 2024, observed the matter was before the trial court, which would consider the arguments on behalf of the petitioner, and pass an appropriate verdict.
"Petitioner is a 63-year-old decorated officer of the Indian Army with critical medical ailments, who has also suffered a massive heart attack and has two stents implanted. He was diagnosed with cancer and clinically declared as a highly immune-compromised case," his plea said.
The former Army officer, said the plea, was a "victim of an unscrupulous abuser" of law whose modus operandi was to extort the "hard-earned money of respectable citizens like him" by misusing the rape and molestation laws.
It came on record that during the COVID-19 lockdown somewhere between 2019 and 2020, the complainant got in touch with the petitioner claiming to be a social media influencer.
The call was regarding the promotion of his book titled "Broken Crayons Can Still Colour" on various social media platforms for a wider audience reach.
According to the plea, the petitioner was interested in the complainant's offer and decided to avail her service in June 2021, soon after the lockdown ended.
On December 29, 2021, the petitioner agreed to meet the complainant in person to discuss the modalities for the promotion of his autobiography and they met at the Chhattarpur Metro Station following which they drove towards Noida, the plea said.
The petitioner, however, claimed that after he had dropped her off in Noida, he received a call from the local police at around 6 pm, informing him about the woman's complaint alleging he had drugged and assaulted her sexually at around 4.15 pm.
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'Last rites' of INDIA bloc: BJP on Cong-DMK fallout in Tamil Nadu
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Wednesday took a swipe at the Congress for extending support to Vijay's TVK in forming the government in Tamil Nadu and breaking away from its long term ally DMK, saying the party has a history of "betraying" its allies.
The saffron party also attacked the opposition INDIA bloc, claiming the alliance is "falling apart like a pack of cards" and lacks any common ideology or vision.
The Tamil Nadu Congress has decided to support TVK leader Vijay in forming a secular government in the state, sources said.
The decision to support the TVK was taken at an urgent meeting of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of Tamil Nadu Congress late on Tuesday night.
Reacting to the development, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla claimed the INDIA alliance had effectively come to an end after the declaration of assembly election results on May 4.
"There is nobody whom the Congress has not deceived. Imagine what they will do to the Samajwadi Party if they have done this to the DMK," he wrote in a post on X.
Calling it the "last rites" of the INDIA bloc, Poonawalla, in a video post, said, "It has become a Bharat free of the DMK, TMC and the Left, and now Congress has dumped the DMK for the TVK."
The BJP spokesperson alleged that the opposition bloc was formed solely out of political compulsions and personal ambitions.
"The INDI alliance never had any mission or vision. It was only about ambition for position, corruption, commission and obsession against Modi ji that they came together. But now it is all falling apart like a pack of cards," he said.
Questioning the unity of the opposition parties, Poonawalla said the alliance was absent in several states during the election.
"Where was the INDI alliance in Bengal, in Kerala, in Gujarat, in Punjab, in Delhi, in Haryana, in Karnataka? There is no INDI alliance," he said.
The DMK on Wednesday described the Congress move to extend support to TVK as a "backstab" by its long-time national ally.
Speaking to PTI videos, DMK spokesperson Saravanan Anadurai said, "The Congress party has decided to ally with the TVK, pledging their support to the party. I think they have backstabbed... They have backstabbed the people of Tamil Nadu. They've backstabbed the mandate given by the people of Tamil Nadu."
He said that the decision came even before the electoral process had fully concluded.
"Even before the ink on the returning officer's signature on the victory certificate dried up, they've chosen to go ahead with an alliance," he said.
Vijay's TVK won 108 seats in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, falling short of the halfway mark. He needs the support of 10 MLAs to form a government with a simple majority. The results were declared only on Monday.
The Congress has won five seats, while the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has bagged four seats. The CPI and CPI-M have two seats each. The outgoing ruling party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), has won 59 seats while the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has won 47 seats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won only one seat, and so have the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and the Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam (AMMK), while the VCK has won two seats.
The Congress had fought the assembly polls in a pre-poll alliance with the DMK, while the BJP had a tie-up with the AIADMK.
