Delhi Court Grants Bail To Man Accused Of Assaulting Swati Maliwal

A Delhi Court on Saturday granted bail to Harish Chander, who is accused of allegedly harassing and assaulting Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chief Swati Maliwal on January 19.

The case was registered on Maliwal's complaint alleging that she was dragged on road when her arm got caught in the window of a car which was being driven by a drunk man outside AIIMS.

The FIR was registered under Sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assaults or uses criminal force on any woman) 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of Indian Penal Code and Section 185 (driving by a drunken person or by a person under the influence of drugs) of Motor Vehicles Act.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sanghmitra of Saket Courts observed that all the offences, except for section 354 of IPC, are bailable in nature and that all the offences are punishable with imprisonment for a term less than seven years.

The court also noted that during the arguments, IO stated that there is no need of any custodial interrogation of the accused for the purpose of investigation.

“The accused has no previous involvement in any other offence. Further, the apprehension of the State that the accused might threaten the complainant and the witnesses, and may tamper the evidence, is mere ipse dixit. Even otherwise, this apprehension can be taken care of by imposing reasonable conditions upon him,” the court said.

The court observed that no useful purpose will be served by keeping him behind the bars.

The counsel appearing for accused submitted that Chander was being falsely implicated in the matter and that he had not assaulted or used criminal force against Maliwal and thus section 354 of IPC is not applicable against him.

"She was accompanied by her camera man. She herself had approached the accused and had asked him as to where would he drop her. The CCTV footage of the said incident is already uploaded by the complainant on her social media platform. It is clearly seen in the video that she herself had approached the accused and then had gone to the driver's side and tried to pull out his car keys," the counsel told the court.

The counsel argued that the accused, under the impression that he could be looted by someone, drove the car and said it was a “staged act” by Maliwal to show her power.

The reply filed on behalf of the IO stated there is an allegation against the accused that he started starring at Maliwal and made lewd gestures at her. Further, it was submitted that accused has been interrogated and statement of complainant was also recorded under Section 164 of CrPC.

It was also stated that the investigation in the matter is at an initial stage and there is an apprehension that accused might threaten Maliwal.

The prosecution also submitted that Maliwal holds a constitutional post and was performing her official duty when the alleged incident took place and thus, Sections 186 and 332 IPC are also attracted in the case.

Granting bail to the accused, the court said that while nature of accusations is serious and the same is a relevant consideration at the stage of bail, “it is not the only test or factor to be considered.”

“It is the basic principal of criminal law that the accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. It would be impermissible for the court, at this stage, while deciding the bail application, to subject the accused to a pre mature trial. It is also a settled law that bail is the rule and jail is the exception and the object of bail is to secure presence of the accused,” the court said. 

Advocatws S.K Dhaka, P.S Dhaka, Naveen Kumar, Vikas Singh, Aman Panwar and Dev Sejwal appeared for accused.

APP Dishank Dhawan appeared for State.