[Asaram Minor Rape Case] Supreme Court Stays Rajasthan High Court's Order To Summon IPS Officer Ajay Pal Lamba As Court Witness

Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice J.K. Maheshwari, ordered,

"Issue notice returnable in three weeks.

In the meanwhile, there shall be stay of operation of the impugned order dated 10.02.2022."

Case Background

Essentially, Asaram's appeal against his conviction is presently pending in the High Court wherein he has contended that the entire prosecution case is false and fabricated. Meanwhile, he moved an application to summon Mr. Lamba.

In his application, Asaram primarily submitted that the victim was tutored on the basis of some videography done by Mr. Lamba, a description of which has been mentioned in a book titled Gunning For The Godman, The True Story Behind Asaram Bapu's Conviction, which has been co-authored by Mr. Lamba.

To support his claim, the Counsel for Asaram submitted that there was no mention of the alleged scene of crime/kutiya, neither in the victim's handwritten complaint nor in her statement, however, after she was shown a video recorded by Ajay Pal Lamba [the then DCP (West), Jodhpur] on August 20, 2013, the victim, in her police statement recorded on August 21, 2013, for the first time, gave a detailed description of the Kutia.

Against this backdrop, a prayer had been made in Asaram's application to summon Mr. Lamba so that he could be cross-examined by the defence as well as the prosecution.

Lastly, it was contended that till the publication of the book, the defence had no idea regarding the video recorded by the DCP Shri Ajay Pal Lamba, however, no sooner, the book was published in 2020 and came out in the market, this important fact came to light whereupon, the instant application has been preferred.

Rajasthan High Court's Observations

On 10.02.2022, the division bench of Rajasthan High Court comprising Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Vinod Kumar Bharwan observed that it would be premature for it to comment that for describing the crime scene, the victim was tutored on the basis of some videography.

Further, the Court opined that it was absolutely unwarranted for Mr. Lamba to have published the book while the matter was still pending consideration at the stage of appeal and that it may be viewed as an attempt to influence the Judicial proceedings.

However, further stressing that since the cat is out of the bag and the book has been published, the Court, while allowing the plea, observed thus:

"The video would definitely be a valuable piece of evidence because it was recorded during the first visit by a police officer to the crime scene. Shri Lamba was not examined in evidence at the trial...Now with the publication of the book, referred to supra, the defence has the right to claim that video of the crime scene was unquestionably recorded which fact is sufficient to convince the Court that it is absolutely essential in the interest of justice and for a just decision of the case to exercise the power under Section 391 Cr.P.C. for summoning and examining Shri Ajay Pal Lamba as a court witness in this case while giving access of cross-examination to the defence as well as the prosecution."

Mr. Manish Singhvi, Sr. Adv., Mr. Arpit Parkash, Adv. and Mr. Sandeep Kumar Jha, AOR appeared for the petitioner.

Also Read: [Asharam Minor's Rape Case] Supreme Court Stays Rajasthan High Court Decision To Summon IPS Officer Ajay Lamba

Case Title: State of Rajasthan v. Asharam @ Ashumal