The Delhi High Court Monday refused to stay proceedings before the trial court in an alleged rape case involving P P Madhavan, the personal secretary of senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
A single judge bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma refused to grant a stay of proceedings pending before Additional Sessions Judge, Dwarka, which is listed for “evidence” on January 25. However, the high court granted time to the complainant in the matter as well as the state to file their response.
Madhavan, 71, had approached the high court seeking the quashing of the charges framed against him by the trial court through its order dated September 14, 2022. In his plea, Madhavan sought the quashing of the chargesheet framed against him as well as the quashing of all subsequent proceedings in the case. He claimed that both the purported incidents have been fabricated by the woman as they occurred on an “unsaid and random date not specified by the complainant”.
Madhavan has relied on Delhi Police’s charge sheet to claim that during the investigation the location of the mobile phones of both Madhavan and the woman were not found at the places of occurrences of the alleged sexual assault. Madhavan has also claimed that the police charge sheet shows that the woman was unable to produce any evidence in support of her claim. He has assailed not only the chargesheet filed by the police but the order of the trial court framing charges stating that the trial court “erroneously” framed charges after it “failed to appreciate that the chargesheet was contrary to the evidence on record”.
According to the status report of the Delhi Police filed on October 14 last year, on June 25, 2022, the woman in her written complaint had alleged that after the death of her husband, a Congress party worker, in February 2020, she came in contact with Madhavan at the party office and “they became good friends”.
“They also started indulging audio/video calls through WhatsApp. In the month of February 2022 (date not known), the Petitioner (Madhavan) called her to meet near Uttam Nagar Terminal where he took her in his car and parked the car on the roadside and started abusing her physically, sexually…in a private part without her consent. When complainant opposed it, she was thrown away from the car,” the report states.
After this incident, the status report states, the complainant had alleged that Madhavan again sexually assaulted her in February at Sunder Nagar, near Pragati Maidan in Delhi. “The petitioner (Madhavan) also made false promises of getting her job and marriage and had sexual intercourse with her without her will. Thereafter, when the complainant insisted on marriage, he started making excuses. After some time, the complainant came to know that the Petitioner is living with his wife whereas it was told to her that his wife has expired. She further stated that she was also threatened with dire consequences in case of any action against the Petitioner (Madhavan),” the report states.
An FIR under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was filed against Madhavan based on the complainant’s statement. The status report says, “The CDR/IPR of mobile numbers of the Petitioner PP Madhavan and complainant were obtained and analysed which revealed that neither complainant nor the Petitioner had their locations at the place of occurrence from January 2022 to 5th March 2022. As per CDR analysis, on 21.01.2022, the location of Petitioner P P Madhavan was found near Sunder Nagar, Delhi and the complainant had also stated the same in her FIR and statement and u/s 164 CRPC”.
Madhavan was called to join the investigation on July 11, 2022, and he came in an ambulance as he was recently operated on for some ailments, the report states. He was interrogated in the case and keeping in view his ailments and age he was medically examined at the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital for his capability test, the report states.
As per the report, the Delhi Police chargesheeted Madhavan on the “basis of available evidence” on August 10, 2022, and submitted it to the trial court on August 12, 2022. The police have strongly opposed Madhavan’s plea in its status report claiming that charges have been framed and the matter is pending trial before Additional Sessions Judge for prosecution’s evidence.