New Delhi | A 35-year-old woman sent a letter to 22 judges of the Supreme Court alleging that CJI Ranjan Gogoi has sexually harassed her and asked for a separate committee to be set up in this matter.
A report by Scroll.in explains the woman’s journey against one of the most powerful in India.
The report states that the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had made sexual advances on her at his residence office on October 10 and 11, 2018.
The woman was a junior assistant in the court who was placed in the CJI’s own residence.
“He hugged me around the waist, and touched me all over my body with his arms and by pressing his body against mine, and did not let go,” she wrote in an affidavit sent with a covering letter. “He told me ‘hold me’, he did not let go of me despite the fact that I froze and tried to get out of his embrace by stiffening and moving my body away.”
She alleged that when she refused his advances, her family was equally harassed.
Her husband and brother-in-law, both of whom are head constables in Delhi Police, were suspended without valid reasons in December 2018.
She alleged in the letter that she was wrongfully arrested, in the case of bribery where she had accepted an amount of ₹50000 in an oral agreement that she would provide a job to a certain Mr.Naveen but did not do so.
Her husband was also brought to the police station, shackled, and beaten up.
The letter further states,” I did not have the courage to make this complaint earlier because I was terrified of the consequences to me and my family were threatened of”.
“I was left with no option but to appeal to your Lordships to take up this matter”, it added.
An email was sent to the CJI, to which Secretary General answered.
They claimed that all these allegations were false; their intention was to thwart the institution.
“Throughout her employment in the Supreme Court, whether during her posting at home office of the CJI, or even subsequently after she was transferred out of the home office of the Chief Justice of India, or at the time she was terminated, or even thereafter, there were no complaints made by her of the nature now being alleged. It is not only mischievous but a complete afterthought of her to make these false allegations at this time.”
“It appears that these false allegations are being made as a pressure tactics to somehow come out of the various proceedings which have been initiated in law, against her and her family, for their on wrong doings. Its is also very possible that there are mischievous forces behind all this, with an intention to malign the institution. “
The woman claimed that CJI Gogoi would send her messages every day.
Her brother and brother-in-law were transferred multiple times without a proper reason.
A bench comprising of CJI, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna held a special sitting today.
The Solicitor General Tushar Mehta termed the allegations ‘a blackmail technique’, while the Attorney General KK Venugopal highlighted the fact that the names have been published, even though there is a legal bar.
CJI Ranjan Gogoi said that some bigger force was trying to destabilise the judiciary.
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