Bail plea of MCS officer over sexual assault dismissed
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 25 2017:
Session Judge, Imphal West yesterday dismissed an anticipatory bail filed by an MCS officer and vacated the interim bail passed by the Sessions Court Imphal West on May 15 .
The MCS officer of 2012 batch has been identified as Salam Peter (32) s/o Dilipkumar of Babupara, Jiribam presently staying at the Government quarters at Lamphel Sanakeithel.
He is currently posted as the District Collector of MAHUD and UBS.
Hearing of the anticipatory bail was held in the Court on May 22 .
Counsel of the petitioner submitted before the Court that on May 12, a 25-year-old woman filed a complaint in the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal West against the MCS officer, his father and sister alleging that they had committed certain sexual acts against her in 2015 and 2016 .
He stated that on the same day, the Chief Judicial Magistrate forwarded the matter to Imphal West women police station for investigation under Section 156 (3) of CrPC.
After the registration of an FIR, Imphal West district police hounded the petitioner's house at Thangmeiband Kabrabam Leikai and the Government quarters at Lamphel Sanakeithel for two/three days but the whole family was out of station since May 12 for attending a marriage ceremony in Jiribam.
The counsel also submitted that complainant became briefly acquainted with the petitioner through the social networking site Facebook and they maintained a platonic relationship for a few months.
With the passage of time they slowly drifted apart owing largely to differences in their thought and outlooks but the complainant however could not digest the idea of separation and kept on persisting for maintaining the relationship with the petitioner, he stated.
On November 4 last year, the man got married and upon hearing the news of his marriage, the woman came to the quarter of the petitioner on November 9 and threatened to kill herself if anyone tries to send her away forcibly from the quarter, he continued.
On the other hand, Assistant Public Prosecutor of the State contended that during the course of investigation, statement of the complainant was recorded by the Investigation Officer of the case under Section 161 of CrPC wherein the complainant clearly stated that she had a love affair with the accused/petitioner and the petitioner forcibly had sexual relationship with her.
He submitted that on November 9, 2016 the accused eloped with the victim/complainant with the knowledge of the accused's father and younger sister.
However, the accused never came forward to complete the marriage and later the accused married another woman, he claimed.
The Assistant Public Prosecutor made an observation that if the accused is released on pre-arrest bail, the investigation of the case will be hampered and there is a high possibility of tampering witnesses of the case as the accused is an MCS officer.
After hearing the submissions from both the sides, the Court passed an order dismissing the anticipatory bail of the MCS officer and the interim bail passed by the Sessions Court, Imphal West on May 15 stand vacated.
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