BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain moves SC against HC's order for FIR in rape case

A day after the Delhi High Court ordered registration of FIR against Shahnawaz Hussain, the senior BJP leader on Thursday approached the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the direction with regard to alleged rape in 2018.

He claimed the allegations made by the woman having matrimonial dispute with his brother were totally false and mala fide.

On Wednesday, in a major setback to the former Union minister, a single bench of Justice Asha Menon directed for lodging of the FIR, completion of the investigation within three months and filing of a detailed report under Section 173 Code of Criminal Procedure.

The court had then dismissed the petition filed by the former Union Minister, challenging the order of July 12, 2018, of the Special Judge, who had rejected his revision petition against the orders of the metropolitan magistrate for registration of FIR.

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On Thursday, a counsel mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Chief Justice N V Ramana for urgent hearing. The court agreed to put the matter for consideration next week.

A complaint against Hussain was filed by the Delhi-based woman in June 2018, alleging commission of offences under Sections 376 (Rape), 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) and 506 (Criminal Intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The complainant later filed an application seeking directions to the city Police for the registration of FIR.

The woman alleged that the BJP leader had raped her and threatened to kill her.

"In the present case, there seems to be a complete reluctance on the part of the police to even register an FIR. In the absence of the FIR, at best, the police could have, as correctly observed by the learned Special Judge, conducted only what is a preliminary inquiry" the High Court said.

"The FIR only puts the machinery into operation. It is a foundation for investigation of the offence complained of. It is only after investigations that the police can come to the conclusion whether or not an offence had been committed and if so by whom," the Delhi High Court said in its judgement.

In his special leave petition, Hussain contended that the High Court failed to appreciate that the petitioner was sought to be wrongly, falsely and illegally implicated in the case with ulterior motive by the woman-complainant, who was having matrimonial dispute with his brother.

"The petitioner is a Z plus security protectee and the allegations by the complainant were found to be totally baseless and untrue as she kept changing her statements and the location of the petitioner and that of her never matched as per CDRs and CCTV footages," Hussain claimed.

He claimed, in 2017, he had filed a complaint with the Delhi police stating that he was residing separately from his brother Shahbaz Khan, who was resident of Noida and a woman through her Facebook account was continuously defaming him.