Woman IAS Officer Accuses Advocates Of Molestation In Court

A woman officer of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) has alleged that she was molested by a group of advocates at a court in Saket, New Delhi. She filed a police complaint in which she said that several advocates had molested her and even beaten up her husband when he tried to intervene. The incident reportedly took place when the couple were coming out of the court premises. The advocates allegedly stopped their car in the afternoon of 10 January.

After the complaint surfaced, the Bar Council of India (BCI) took suo motu cognisance of reports and held a meeting on Friday in which it instructed the Saket Bar Association to submit a report on the matter. It also issued notice to the accused advocates, directing them to explain why their Certificates of Practice should not be suspended.

Police found CCTV footage from the complex which confirms that a group of advocates stopped the couple and pushed them after a heated argument.

DCP (south) Vijay Kumar said that the couple was in the court as the woman officer, currently posted in Mizoram, was summoned for a hearing in a property-related case. The police received a call from Safdarjung hospital when the couple went there for treatment after the advocates allegedly thrashed them.

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“Police went to the spot and their medical examination was conducted. We later recorded the woman’s statement, she handled a property-related case during her earlier posting in the city,” Kumar told Indian Express.

Police found CCTV footage from the complex which confirms that a group of advocates stopped the couple and pushed them after a heated argument

“The complainant and her husband are now posted out of Delhi and had come for the hearing. As they came out after the hearing, the lawyer of the other party got into an argument with them, which turned into a scuffle. The couple was surrounded by lawyers, who stopped their car as they came out from court,” he added. “We have registered an FIR under IPC sections 354 (molestation), 323 (causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 34 (common intimidation).  We are probing the case and have not arrested anyone,” the DCP said.

Saket Bar Association president Karnail Singh said that the accused lawyer had also sustained injuries in the scuffle. “He sustained an injury on his cheek, caused by what looked like using a pointed object. After the hearing, the accused lawyer alleged that the woman started hitting him. The lawyer narrated the incident to me. According to him, there was no molestation… nor did he hit anyone.”

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