Breaking: Gauhati High Court Denies Interim Relief (For Now) To Youth Congress Chief Srinivas BV In FIR Over Harassment Allegations

Today, the Gauhati High Court refused to grant any interim relief to Youth Congress national president Srinivas BV in his plea moved before it seeking to quash an FIR filed against him by an expelled party leader accusing him of outraging her modesty and heckling her.

Justice Ajit Borthakur observed that a perusal of the case diary including the statement of the victim woman under Section 164 Cr.P.C. was of utmost necessity for a just decision before the interim prayer of the petitioner was considered.

Accordingly, refusing to grant interim prayer to stay the FIR, the Court said that the prayer for interim relief would be considered only after receipt of the scanned copy of the case diary and service of notice on the complainant.

The case against Srinivas

The allegations against Srinivas have been levelled by the former President of the Assam Youth Congress, inter-alia, stating that Srinivas persistently harassed her mentally by way of sexist and slang words and also threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed the same before the high office bearers of the Congress Party.

It is her further allegations that when she went to Raipur in the state of Chhattisgarh to attend the plenary session of the Congress Party on March 25 this year, she was heckled by Srinivas as he held her arms and also threatened her by using slang words.

It was also alleged that despite informing the behaviour of the petitioner before the high office bearers of the Congress Party, it did not yield any result, hence, she lodged the impugned FIR under Sections 509/294/341/352/354/354A(iv)/506 of the IPC read with Section 67 of the I.T. Act, 2000.

Challenging the FIR, Srinivas moved the Gauhati HC seeking to set aside quash the Notice issued by Dispur P.S. in the case. He also sought a direction for protection against any coercive action.

He lastly sought a stay on the proceedings under the notice of personal appearance/summons issued by the Inspector General of Police, CID, Ulubari, Guwahati, Assam during the pendency of the present petition.

Before the Court, it was argued by his counsel that the FIR was the result of a political vendetta. It was further submitted that the Assam Police has no jurisdiction to inquire into any of the allegations made in the complaint let alone registration of the instant FIR and that the ingredients of the offences as alleged are not made out on a prima facie reading of the complaint. 

Though the counsel for the petitioner stress upon the grant of relief today itself, the Court opined that it could not grant any relief before it perused the case diary including the statement of the victim woman under Section 164 CrPC and hence, calling for the requisite details, the Court posted the matter for hearing on May 2.

Case title - SRINIVAS B.V vs. THE STATE OF ASSAM AND ANR