SC grants liberty to petitioner to highlight main points of petition in writing to IO

The Supreme Court has granted liberty to the petitioner (the mother of a sexual harassment victim who committed suicide) to give in writing to the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case, within one week highlighting the main points raised in her petition.

"That (the points given by the petitioner) will have to be considered and taken to its logical end by the IO before filing the final report in the concerned court," a three-judge bench of the top court headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar and also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari said in its order recently.

The Apex Court had on Monday was hearing a petition filed by the mother of the sexual harassment victim, who committed suicide later, seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry in the case.

The Supreme Court said that we are not expressing any opinion either way on the merits of the points raised by the petitioner as of now.

The Apex Court later defer the hearing for eight weeks, preferably in November last week, as it will be awaiting the steps taken by the IO in light of the representation to be made by the petitioner in the case.

The petitioner shall extend all possible assistance to the IO as and when required, the Apex Court said in its order.

The mother of the victim, who was working as a finance officer in the BHEL, had moved the Apex Court through her lawyer, Alakh Alok Srivastava, seeking a CBI enquiry into the death of her daughter, who had allegedly committed suicide due to repeated sexual harassment at her workplace at BHEL Hyderabad office.

The mother of the sexual harassment victim, who had allegedly committed suicide, had filed the writ petition before the top court on July 5, and sought a direction to urgently transfer the criminal investigation to the CBI from Telangana State police pertaining to her unfortunate death due to sexual harassment at her workplace at BHEL, Hyderabad.

Alakh Alok Srivastava, the lawyer for the mother, in the petition, stated that the petitioner's deceased daughter was a bright, young and intelligent finance professional, having other qualifications. She had joined BHEL in 2009, at a young age of 23 years and served BHEL till her last breath i.e. till October 17, 2019, with utmost dedication and devotion to her duties.

There was not even an iota of complaint against her work or against her behaviour during her long association with the BHEL, Srivastava in his petition claimed.

She was sexually harassed, molested, stalked, mentally tortured and attempted to be raped by her own supervisor and by her own office colleagues at BHEL, Hyderabad, which forced her to ultimately commit suicide on October 17, 2019, at a young age of merely 33, the petition claimed.

The petitioner, herein, being an aggrieved mother, is seeking justice for her daughter.

The suicide note of the deceased and her last telephonic conversation with her sister, categorically established that her own supervisor and office colleagues subjected her to extreme level of sexual, physical and mental harassment and attempted to rape her, due to which she was forced to commit suicide, the petition claimed.

The petition claimed that the deceased daughter of the petitioner categorically stated that attempt to rape and repeated sexual harassment by the main accused, Arther Kishore Kumar, and other co-accused persons, had prompted her to commit suicide. However, despite this, the Telangana State police has not yet arrested the main accused, or any other accused persons and has not conducted their custodial interrogation.

To their surprise, on the contrary, the Telangana police had, illegally given clean chit to the accused persons, in their latest report of June 02, 2020, filed before the National Commission of Women (NCW), the petition claimed and sought a CBI enquiry into the entire case to unravel the truth.

( With inputs from ANI )