Woman army major molested by colleague in Rajasthan; Court orders reinvestigation

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A Rajasthan court has ordered reinvestigation into the case of a woman army major who was allegedly molested by one of her colleagues after she challenged the final FIR report prepared by the police in the Bhimganj Mandi police station here, sources said.

The court, in its hearing on the case on January 22, also nixed the report.

According to sources, the accused named in the FIR has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. It was learnt that the victim is in the Engineering Corps of the Indian Army while the accused Lieutenant Colonel (Major at the time of the incident) is posted in the Army Supply Corps in Allahabad.

IANS also spoke to the Indian Army Public Relations Officer Aman Anand about this entire matter.

He said, 'Even after a lot of efforts, I have not been able to get any information in this matter so far. As soon as we discover some facts related to the case, we will inform."

According to the FIR lodged by the victim, she was alone in her government flat (Kota Dadwada Military Cantt) on June 24, 2018 at around 2 a.m. (after midnight). At that time, the accused barged into her flat in an inebriated state and allegedly tried to force her on to the bed, besides touching her inappropriately. The victim fought back after which the accused jumped off from the roof and fled from the spot.

The victim told IANS over phone, "The next day, when the accused reached my flat with his wife to offer me an apology, I recorded the conversation. But the police did not produce the recorded conversation as evidence."

On being asked why she did not inform the army authorities about the incident, the aggrieved victim told IANS, "I had informed the army officials about the incident, but I don't know where the departmental inquiry has headed in the last two years."

"So far no information has been disclosed to me by the army. The first time, when I took a complaint in English to the Bhimganj Mandi police station in Kota city, I was told by the policemen that I should file the complaint in Hindi. When the complaint written in Hindi reached the police station, the policemen, while registering the FIR, did not enter the name of the accused Major named by me in the "column" of the suspect/accused and left it blank."

According to the victim, "It is clear that the intention of the police was to save the accused from day one. Even after he was named, the police did not arrest the accused."

The investigation into the case made some headway after lawyer Satendra Sharma took up the woman's case and went from Delhi to Rajasthan and filed a petition before Additional Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate of North Kota (Rajasthan), against the accused.

According to the petition, the accused himself admitted during investigation that he went to the the victim's flat that night and the next day (June, 24, 2018), he went with his wife to apologize to the victim for his conduct.

Now the court of Additional Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate, North Kota (Rajasthan) Sonal Parikh has put the police investigation in the dock. The court order issued on 22 January 2020 stated that despite mentioning in the written complaint of the victim, non-registration of the name of the accused in the 'accused/suspect' column of the FIR reflects the negligence of the investigating officer.

The mobile recording of the accused, which was done by the victim, was also not included in the investigation by the investigating officer as evidence.

In the evidence of the statement of the accused, the officer has not presented any document-evidence, in which the accused has said that the victim, the woman Major, is accustomed to making complaints over such allegations. Therefore, Bhimganj Mandi police station should reinvestigate this matter as per the rules, and present the report immediately.