Calcutta High Court Grants Anticipatory Bail To BJP Leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, Others In Assault Case

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to BJP Leader, Kailash Vijayvargiya, RSS member Jisnu Basu, and Pradeep Joshi in an assault case in view of the fact that the matter has reached the Supreme Court.

The Court observed that the petitioners/bail applicants should be granted bail till October 25 as the matter before the Supreme Court is set to be heard on October 20.

The Bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Kausik Chanda was hearing the pleas of bail applicants including Vijayvargiya challenging the order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alipore, directing the complaint filed by the victim woman to be treated as First Information Report.

The facts in brief 

As alleged by the victim woman, Vijayvargiya called her to his flat wherein the bail applicants committed rape on her, one after another, and she was forced to leave the flat in a vegetated condition.

Further, it was alleged that since thereafter, she was physically assaulted on multiple occasions; more precisely, 39 times on diverse dates and places, and ultimately two complaints were lodged, dated December 20, 2019 u/s 341/506(ii)/34 of the Indian Penal Code and u/s 341/323/325/506/34 of the Indian Penal Code, however, no FIR was registered.

Thereafter, an application under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure was filed on November 12, 2020, which was dismissed by the CJM, Alipore. The said order was assailed before the High Court by filing the Criminal Revisional Application.

The said criminal revision application was allowed by the HC, setting aside the order of the CJM, Alipore, and the matter was remitted back for reconsideration to the CJM, Alipore.

Finally, on October 8, 2021, and solely on the basis of the directions/orders passed by the High Court, CJM Court directed the complaint to be treated as FIR.

Before the Court, it was contended by the Counsel for the petitioners that in the two complaints lodged by the woman, there was no single whisper of the gravity of the offence that was alleged in her application before the lower court.

The Counsel for Basu argued that the closure reports filed by the investigating agency into the two complaints had arrived at the conclusion that the allegations were cooked up due to political vendetta.

Court's observations

At the outset, the Court took into account the arguments for the Counsels of the petitioners that the findings of the High Court in setting aside the order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Alipore suffered from glaring infirmity and inconsistency, and the said order has now been challenged before the Supreme Court.

Since the matter is likely to be listed on October 20, 2021, the Court was of the view that once the ball has rolled to the Supreme Court, the aspect cannot be overlooked at this juncture.

"Since the origin of the instant case is founded upon the order of this Court, scrupulously followed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, in allowing an application under Section 156(3) of the Code, the matter largely depends upon the outcome of the Special Leave Petition and till such time, we feel that the petitioners should not be deprived of the personal liberty," the Court noted allowing their bail pleas till October 25.

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