Delhi HC asks Centre to produce all sexual harassment complaints against suspended CRPF DIG

The Delhi HC passed the order on December 14 while hearing petitions filed by Khajan Singh and another CRPF officer, Neeraj Bala, against actions taken by the force against them.

The order was passed following a statement made by senior lawyer Colin Gonsalves that eight women had made allegations of sexual harassment against Singh.

“Mr Gonsalves …states that as many as eight ladies have made allegations of sexual harassment against the petitioner in WP(C) 11729/2021. Mr Sanjay Jain, learned ASG, is directed to produce all the sexual harassment complaints filed against the petitioner in the WP(C) 11729/2021,” the order passed by Justice Manmohan and Justice Navin Chawla has said.

The petitioner in WP(C) 11729/2021 is Khajan Singh.

Khajan Singh’s lawyer Gauri Puri when contacted said she could not comment on a sub-judice matter. CRPF PRO DIG Dalip Singh Ambesh refused to comment on the matter.

Khajan Singh was chief sports officer with the CRPF and had won a silver medal in swimming at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul. He is also an Arjuna awardee.

Singh was earlier accused of sexual harassment by a constable in the CRPF. In an FIR registered in December 2020 with the Delhi police, the woman alleged that Khajan Singh and Inspector Sarjit Singh, who was then a coach, had raped her on multiple occasions since 2014.

However, the woman later retracted her statement saying the allegations were made in a fit of anger. Following this, in October last year, Khajan Singh was acquitted in the case.

In March last year, however, the CRPF suspended Khajan Singh following an inquiry. Singh has challenged this through his writ petition WP(C) 11729/2021 seeking redressal from the court for his reinstatement on the ground that the complainant has retracted her statement.

CRPF Commandant Neeraj Bala’s peitition, which was heard by the court along with Singh’s petition, is about her allegedly abrupt transfer from Delhi to Greater Noida when she was Presiding Officer of the Sector Level Internal Complaints Committee. She has sought redressal on the ground that her transfer was “malafied”. The court granted a stay on her transfer last July.