Delhi High Court refuses to quash FIR against a man on molestation allegations

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has refused to quash an FIR against a man on molestation allegations and directed that the woman will have to pay damages to the accused in case he is acquitted by the trial court.

The accused had to resign from his lucrative job in the United Nations following the complainant’s letter to his organisation.

The high court said the direction for damages was necessitated as on 3 September, 2021, it had directed both the parties not to precipitate the issue any further as they were in mediation and despite that, the woman seemed to have written a letter to the man’s employer.

The high court said it cannot act as an investigating agency or as the trial court going into the intricacies of the evidence and the submissions and added that it has perused the FIR, which disclosed a cognisable offence.

It said there may be contradictions in the complaint filed by the woman, who is already married, and the FIR, but the same needs to be examined in trial and the court cannot rush to quash an FIR when the charge sheet has been filed.

Therefore, the petition for quashing of the FIR and the charge sheet is dismissed with a direction to the trial court to expeditiously dispose of the matter, it said.

However, a note of caution needs to be sounded in this case. In the facts of the present case, because of the allegations in the FIR, the petitioner (man) had to resign from his lucrative job in the UN. It is hereby observed and directed, in case the trial court acquits the petitioner and the allegation levied against the petitioner is found to be baseless, the petitioner will be entitled to damages including loss of salary for the intervening period, from respondent no. 2 (woman), Justice Jasmeet Singh said.

The high court’s order came while deciding the man’s plea seeking quashing of an FIR lodged against him by the woman for the alleged offence of molestation.

The woman had also levelled allegations and lodged FIR against her in-laws, including her sister-in-law who was in a relationship with the accused man.

The woman had alleged that the man, who was her sister-in-law’s boyfriend, had made sexual advances toward her in her matrimonial house on 13 December, 2019, at around 9 PM.

She further alleged that when she disclosed the incident to her in-laws, she was assaulted by her parents-in-law and sister-in-law.

While the other family members had also sought to quash the case against them, the high court refused to do so and said the course of justice cannot be thwarted by the court as the FIR disclosed a cognisable offence.

The man’s counsel contended that the woman made a complaint on 16 December to 17 December, 2020 while the alleged incident took place on 13 December, 2019, and that it was an abuse of the process of law as there was a delay of more than one year in registering the complaint.

The man submitted before the court that on the day of the alleged incident, he and the complainant’s sister-in-law had gone to South Extension here at around 6:45 pm, then to another store at Lajpat Nagar where they remained till around 8:47 pm and made purchases using a credit card.

The counsel said if the accused was in Lajpat Nagar around 8:40-8:47 pm, he could not have reached the south Delhi locality where the complainant and her in-laws lived at around 9 pm.

The counsel told the high court that after Lajpat Nagar, the entire family, including the complainant, went to a restaurant at Pandara Road for dinner and they remained there till 11:12 pm and it was only between 11:40 pm and 1:15 am that the accused was at the complainant’s matrimonial home and left from there at around 1:33 am which was reflected from his Ola receipt.

The man’s counsel contended that the woman’s husband had filed a divorce petition on 7 December, 2020, against her and it was this divorce petition which instigated the complainant to file a complaint on 16 December to 17 December, 2020 of an alleged incident of December 2019, and the complaint was nothing but a mere concoction of blatant lies.

The counsel for the woman said the complainant who has registered the FIR cannot be asked to explain the allegations, delay, contradictions, and conduct, at the time of quashing as these are all matters of trial.

She said the complainant can very well be asked these questions at the evidence stage and thereafter, the competent court can pass a final verdict after appreciating the entire evidence.

The counsel submitted that delay in registering the FIR of a sexual offence is no ground to quash the FIR and also stressed that the complainant was a newlywed woman and the incident had taken place merely seven days after her marriage and to keep her marriage intact she had kept quiet.

The high court said, even though these aspects poke holes in the case of the complainant, this has to be adjudicated before the trial court. The complainant needs to be given an opportunity to explain the delay and also the contradictions in the complaint and the FIR. It is a sensitive matter requiring that the side of the complainant is heard.

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