Even as Nityananda, accused in a rape case, underwent potency test at Victoria Hospital on Monday, legal experts are of the view that the outcome of the test may not have any bearing on the case.
“It does not benefit the police in any manner and it proves nothing for or against the accused. Potency is simply, the ability of a male adult to maintain an erection during a medical examination. The law presumes that an adult male, who is alleged to have raped a woman, is potent. Besides, the law and medical science will reason that impotency in September 2014 is not proof of impotency during previous months or past years during which the rape was alleged to have been committed.
So, what has this whole exercise accomplished in the first place? It is of course, a waste of taxpayers’ money, a public spectacle and a sheer legal nonsense,” opined Supreme Court lawyer K V Dhananjay.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has been pressing for a potency test on Nityananda for almost three-and-a-half years. A television channel had aired sex tapes of Nityananada and the Ramanagara police had registered case of rape, which was later transferred to CID.
“Medical examination of the accused in a case of rape is mandatory under Section 53 (a) of CrPC. When he was arrested, this examination could not be conducted as there was no victim then. However, a victim, an NRI based in the US, approached us and gave a statement. At that time, the accused had to go through the medical examination,” a CID official said.
Chargesheet
The CID, after examining as many as 101 witnesses, spread across the country and even abroad, submitted a 430-page chargesheet to the court in November 2010.
The chargesheet said that during the investigation a woman from the US deposed and stated that she was repeatedly raped by Nityananda not only at his ashram in Bidadi but in other parts of the country.
The accused allegedly deceived the victim stating that if she subjected herself to his sexual demands she would achieve enlightenment and that sex with him was the path to ‘Moksha.’
The CID also placed before the court agreements signed between the devotees and ashram authorities taking consent of the devotees for taking part in tantrik sex.