Supreme Court Adjourns to August Indian Youth Congress President BV Srinivas’s Anticipatory Bail Plea Hearing In Alleged Harassment Case

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and JB Pardiwala was hearing a petition for anticipatory bail in connection with a first information report (FIR) registered in Assam against Srinivas on the strength of sexual harassment complaint lodged by a former party member.

The division bench today agreed to adjourn the hearing to August after time was sought on behalf of the Assam government. Justice Gavai initially suggested making the court’s earlier order granting interim anticipatory bail ‘absolute’ after being apprised that Srinivas had cooperated with the investigation as instructed. However, when the counsel for the State of Assam insisted, the top court acceded to the request to grant an adjournment, pronouncing, “Four weeks granted to file counter. Two weeks thereafter to file rejoinder. Put up after six weeks.”

Senior Advocate (Dr) Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for the petitioner.

Background

BV Srinivas, the national president of the Indian Youth Congress, came under fire earlier this year for allegedly harassing former Assam Youth Congress president Angkita Dutta. In April, the latter, in a series of tweets on Twitter, accused the former of being a sexist and a chauvinist, and discriminating against her based on her gender. Within days of publicly calling out Srinivas, Dutta was expelled from the party for a period of six years for indulging in ‘anti-party activities’.

Subsequently, an FIR was registered against Srinivas under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 such as Sections 352 (assault or criminal force), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 354A(1)(iv) (sexual harassment), as well as Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. In her complaint, Dutta alleged that Srinivas had persistently harassed her mentally by making sexist remarks and using expletives. The complainant further claimed that the IYC president had abused, heckled, and manhandled her at a plenary session in Raipur, besides threatening to ruin her career in the party if she complained against him.

In the following month, the Gauhati High Court not only refused to quash the FIR against Srinivas while observing that there was no indication that it was politically motivated as suggested by the accused politician, but the single-judge bench of Justice Ajit Borthakur also rejected Srinivas’ anticipatory bail plea observing that the investigation was at its ‘nascent’ stage.

When the matter travelled in appeal to the top court, a bench headed by Justice Gavai granted Srinivas interim anticipatory bail. While protecting him from arrest, the bench noted that there was a delay of almost two months in the filing of the FIR and as such, the petitioner was entitled to interim protection. Directing Srinivas to appear before the investigating officer on May 22 and on the subsequent dates as and when directed and cooperate with the investigation, the bench pronounced:

“Prima facie, taking into consideration the delay of almost two months in lodging the FIR, will entitle the petitioner to interim protection. We direct that in the event of arrest the petitioner shall be released on anticipatory bail on furnishing solvent sureties to the sum of Rs 50,000.”

Case Details

BV Srinivas v. State of Assam | Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 6210 of 2023

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