Husband, Kin of Woman Who Accused CJI of Harassment Reinstated

“Both of them have been reinstated, but the departmental inquiry against them is still pending,” an official said.

On 19 April, the woman had accused CJI Gogoi of harassment, saying he made sexual advances on her.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

The husband and brother-in-law of the former Supreme Court staffer who had accused Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment have been reinstated as head constables in the Delhi police, more than four months after they were suspended.

The complainant’s brother-in-law told The Quint that he and his brother (the woman’s husband) have been asked to join work from Thursday, 20 June. However, he said that they have not yet received any letter from the Delhi Police about their reinstatement and were informed about the same over the phone.

He added that he didn’t know why they have been asked to join back now. He also said that they don’t have any update on the status of the disciplinary action against them.

The complainant, in her affidavit, had alleged that the two men were suspended on 28 December, 2018, soon after she was terminated as a Supreme Court staffer.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Delhi Armed police), CK Mein, confirmed to The Indian Express that their suspension was revoked last week although the departmental inquiry against them is still pending. Mein, however, refused to comment on why the order was revoked.

Departmental Inquiries Against the Two Men

The woman’s husband was facing departmental inquiries for allegedly calling the CJI’s office, while her brother-in-law was reportedly being investigated for "concealing" a police complaint filed against him in 2015 over “unruly behaviour”.

A joint inquiry was initiated against the duo, following which they were suspended on 28 December 2018, according to the IE report that quoted a Crime Branch officer.

In April, Madhur Verma, DCP (New Delhi), had told the publication that there was no link between the departmental inquiry (against the two men) and the woman’s case.

Why Were The Two Men Suspended?

• On 17 December last year, an order sent by ACP headquarters reportedly resulted in the woman’s husband being transferred from the Special Branch to the Third Battalion.
• On 2 January 2019 – four days after his suspension, a departmental inquiry was initiated against him.
• On 26 February 2019, he was transferred to Second Battalion of Delhi Armed Police.
• On 9 January 2019, an order issued by DCP (Third Battalion), reportedly said the woman’s husband allegedly approached the SHO of Tilak Nagar police station to facilitate a gambling racket in the locality.
• The woman’s brother-in-law, posted at the Second Battalion, was suspended for allegedly hiding a police complaint filed against him in 2015.
• On 6 May, the In-House Inquiry Committee gave a clean chit to CJI Gogoi and concluded that it “found no substance” in the woman’s allegations.

WHAT WAS THE CASE ABOUT?

On Friday, 19 April, the 35-year-old had accused Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi of harassment, saying that Gogoi made sexual advances on her while they were at his residence office on 10 and 11 October last year.

The former junior court assistant had submitted an affidavit to 22 judges of the Supreme Court, outlining how CJI Gogoi sexually harassed her, and how she was further victimised and dismissed from her post.

WHAT THE AFFIDAVIT SAID

In the affidavit submitted in court, the woman said that after she rejected the efforts of the CJI, she was moved out of his residence office, where she was posted since August 2018.

“He hugged me around the waist, and touched me all over my body with his arms and by pressing his body against mine, and did not let go,” the woman recounted, as per the affidavit.

“He told me ‘hold me’, he did not let go of me despite the fact that I froze and tried to get out of his embrace by stiffening and moving my body away,” she added.

Two months after she was moved, she was dismissed from service in December. One of the three grounds for dismissal, as detailed in the inquiry report, was that she had taken a casual leave of one day without approval.

The harassment did not stop at her dismissal, the woman had alleged in the affidavit. It engulfed her entire family, she claimed.

Her husband and brother-in-law, both of whom are head constables in Delhi Police, were suspended on 28 December 2018, the affidavit said.

This was regarding a case involving a colony dispute dating back to 2012 that had been mutually resolved, it added.

(With inputs from The Indian Express)