A Delhi court has requested a response from Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh regarding a sexual harassment case appeal
The matter has been posted for further proceedings on October 9, PTI reported. The court also sought a response from Delhi Police , news agency PTI reported.
“Issue notice to the respondents for the next date of hearing,” the judge said. The appeal also said the judgment assumed that an ideal victim would fight back or provoke a reaction when the incident occurred and cut off all future professional contact with the alleged harasser, even though he continued to control her livelihood. The court had also questioned how the complainants mentioned the “wrong country and year” of the alleged first incident, observing that “the contradiction is fatal to the prosecution case” as “it is not difficult but rather abnormal conduct to not remember the place where the incident of sexual harassment had occurred”.
The respondents are Singh, Tomar and the station house officer (SHO) of Connaught Place police station. Noting that Delhi Police counsel accepted the notice, the judge directed that notices be served on Singh and Tomar through speed post and other means. The court also allowed and disposed of an application by the wrestlers seeking concealment of their identities and permission to serve redacted copies of the appeal on the respondents.
It further claimed that the standards assumed a victim would immediately tell every confidante the full story in identical terms, with anything less being treated as a serious inconsistency, PTI reported.
The appeal said such assumptions do not reflect how real victims actually behave. The 239-page judgment also noted that while the complainant wrestlers said they feared their careers could be affected and therefore did not make allegations against Singh in a timely manner, “it is not understandable” how they maintained “cordial relations” with him for years and “he was invited to family functions and wedding ceremonies by the victims”. The magisterial court had acquitted Singh of “all charges” under IPC Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment) and 506(I) (criminal intimidation), and Tomar under Section 506 (Part I) of the IPC. (With agency inputs) You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Delhi | Silver Rate in Delhi | Bank Holidays in Delhi | Public Holidays in Delhi | Delhi AQI | Weather in Delhi | Petrol Price in Delhi | Diesel Price in Delhi | CNG Price in Delhi | LPG Price in Delhi Stay updated with the latest Delhi news.
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It argued that the verdict repeatedly applied the standard of an ideal victim, including assumptions that a genuine victim would remember the exact place and year of an assault with photographic precision, even while forgetting the precise dates of tournaments played years earlier.
On August 3 this year, a magisterial court acquitted Singh, a former BJP MP, in the sexual harassment case filed by six women wrestlers, including world championships medallist Vinesh Phogat , citing lack of evidence.
In their plea filed on Friday, the wrestlers claimed the acquittal was unsustainable in law and was based on a “manifestly erroneous and selective appreciation” of the evidence on record. They alleged that the judgment proceeded on conjectures and surmises and “failed to apply binding and well-settled principles of law”. It also said the testimonies of two hostile witnesses, who recanted their statements, did not affect the independently corroborated case of the four women wrestlers who filed the appeal. Earlier, the magisterial court’s order had noted that two of the five complainant wrestlers stated that they were “forced/pressured” to level allegations of sexual harassment against Singh. The court had said their testimonies appeared to indicate that the allegation was “politically motivated, false and fabricated, made collectively” in a deep conspiracy.
Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh also issued notice to former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) assistant secretary Vinod Tomar, who was acquitted of the criminal intimidation charge in the case. The court also acquitted Tomar. The plea claimed that a major portion of the magisterial court’s judgment was based on archaic and stereotypical assumptions about the expected behaviour of victims of sexual assault and harassment, instead of a fair and evidence-based assessment taking into account the victims’ circumstances. The plea alleged that the evidence on record established that Singh, a six-time member of Parliament and three-time WFI president, exercised extensive control over the appellants’ careers, directly and through Tomar and the coaching staff.
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday sought a response from former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on an appeal filed by four women wrestlers challenging a magistrate’s verdict acquitting him in a sexual harassment case.