Delhi Court Adjourns Plea For Cancellation Of Bail Of Woman, Who Alleged Sexual Harassment By CJI Ranjan Gogoi

A Delhi court Saturday said it would hear on April 24, a police plea to cancel the bail of a former woman Supreme Court employee, who has accused Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual misconduct, in a cheating and criminal intimidation case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Khurana listed the matter for Wednesday as the accused woman was not served with the copy of the police's plea.

The police sought cancellation of the bail granted to the woman on March 12, after the complainant claimed that he was being threatened by the former Supreme Court staffer and her associates.

An FIR for the alleged offences of cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy was lodged against the woman on March 3, after a complaint was filed by Naveen Kumar, a resident of Jhajjar in Haryana, at the Tilak Marg Police Station here.

Kumar has alleged that the former apex court employee had defrauded him of Rs 50,000, which he claimed she took as part of a bribe, promising him a job at the Supreme Court.

He claimed that in June 2017, he met the woman through a common friend, Mansha Ram, regarding his employment and she had told him she was a personal assistant of a judge in the Supreme Court and her husband was also an officer.

Kumar said the woman had claimed that she has good contacts and can get him employed as process server or as a class-IV employee in the Supreme Court in about one-and-a-half month time, and for this she allegedly demanded Rs 10 lakh from him.

"On her inducement, the complainant paid an advance of Rs 50,000 to her in cash in the presence of Ram in the Supreme Court complex. Till three months, he did not receive any information regarding his employment. Thereafter, he along with Ram again met the woman at Supreme Court complex.

"She told him that the employment will take more time and he should not visit her in the Supreme Court and threatened him to implicate in some false case," the police said in the application seeking cancellation of her bail.

Kumar said he remained in touch with Ram, who died in January this year due to illness.

He approached the police claiming that he has been cheated of Rs 50,000 by the woman on the pretext of his employment in the apex court and that she neither returned his money nor got him employed.

He alleged the woman and her husband threatened him for life if he demanded the money back.

During the investigation, the woman was arrested by the police on March 10 and was sent to judicial custody by a court here the next day. She was granted bail on March 12.

On March 14, the investigation into the case was taken up by the crime branch of Delhi Police and the complainant addressed an application to the DCP that he was being threatened by the woman and her associates.

The police also told the court, in its application, that the SSP of Jhajjar has been sent a letter to provide adequate protection to the complainant.

It is pertinent to mention that the woman Friday sent a sworn affidavit to the residences of 22 apex court judges which became public on Saturday.

In her affidavit, the former SC employee has described two incidents of alleged molestation by the CJI. Both the alleged incident took place in October 2018, within days of CJI Gogoi being appointed to the post.

These allegations prompted the Supreme Court to hold an extraordinary hearing on Saturday morning.