Top lawyers of the country, including Prashant Bhushan, Vrinda Grover and Indira Jaising, have urged the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court to intervene in a case wherein a gangrape victim has been sent to jail.
The heinous crime against the 22-year-old girl took place in Araria. However, on the day of recording her statement under Section 164, the judicial magistrate reportedly got offended and remanded her to judicial custody at Dalsinghsarai jail, around 250 km from Araria in an alleged contempt case.
"While recording her statement on July 10 under Section 164, the learned magistrate perceived her disoriented state of mind as a personal affront and remanded her (and her two caregivers) to judicial custody in Dalsinghsarai Jail. The survivor's details have also been disclosed to the local press," the memorandum submitted to the Chief Justice of Patna High Court, a copy of which is with DH, said.
The lawyers said that the gangrape victim was completely distraught and disoriented when she was brought to the court four days after the incident. "In the course of the four days, she had to repeat her experience to sundry personnel, often only for voyeuristic purposes...she was traumatised and exhausted.....We respectfully submit that any perceived disrespect must be viewed from this perspective," read the lawyers' petition to the Patna High Court.
"...It may be pointed out that no Covid-19 test was conducted on the survivor even though she had been gang-raped by several strangers," argued the lawyers, adding that "the incarceration will have an adverse effect on her health."
The petition, signed by 376 top lawyers of the country, also stated that it has also resulted in the original case pertaining to gangrape (FIR 59/2020, Araria Mahila Thana) having been put on the backburner, while all attention is focussed on the alleged contempt.
The lawyers have sought the intervention of the Patna High Court into the matter "as it displays complete lack of sensitivity to a victim of violent sexual crime."
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