Woman draws court ire for ‘baseless allegations’

Vadodara: The district court on Tuesday allowed the rape survivor to withdraw her application she had filed for transferring the bail hearing of the accused from the court of additional district judge P T Patel to some other court. The district judge, however, asked the woman to tender an unconditional apology to the judge against whom she made allegations.
The court also imposed a cost of Rs 1,000 on the applicant and asked her to deposit the amount in district legal service authority by November 11.
“We argued in the court on Tuesday that her allegations were derogatory and the withdrawal of application cannot be allowed like this. The court observed that the allegations made by the woman were baseless,” said advocate Hitesh Gupta, lawyer of one of the accused Ashok Jain.
“The court also said that it could have initiated contempt proceedings against the woman but it has refrained from doing so as she has withdrawn her transfer application,” Gupta told TOI.
They warned her to be cautious and not make such allegations against the court in future.
The woman, a 24-year-old law student, had on October 29 filed an application seeking transfer of the bail hearing of rape accused Ashok Jain and Raju Bhatt from the court of additional district judge PT Patel to some other court. She had claimed in the application that the accused may be granted bail and they may harm her if they come out of jail. She added that she had no faith left in the additional district court. Gupta, however, said that the transfer application was done to prejudice the case as Jain’s bail hearing was on Monday.
The girl studying in a private university in Vadodara had filed a case of rape against Ashok Jain and Raju Bhatt at Gotri police station in September this year. She had alleged that Jain, at whose CA firm she was interning, had spiked her drinks and raped her. In her complaint, she said Bhatt too raped her at her flat and threatened her with dire consequences if she revealed it to anyone.
Jain is a prominent chartered accountant while Bhatt was trustee of a popular temple in Pavagadh.