A 25-year-old woman has accused three persons, including a lawyer and his clerk, of having raped her inside a lawyer’s chamber at the Patiala House courts complex in New Delhi on Monday evening in conspiracy with her estranged husband, sister-in-law and her husband. The woman is presently entangled in divorce litigation with her husband.
According to the complainant, the incident took place between 6-30 p.m. and 7-30 p.m. on Monday after she was brought to Patiala House Courts in a car and taken to the chamber of another lawyer. “The woman is fighting a divorce case in a Karkardooma Court. She alleges that on Monday morning, her lawyer called her to Karkardooma on the pretext of a court hearing. He along with his sister-in-law and her husband then made her sit in a car that dropped her outside the Patiala House Courts,” said a police officer.
The complainant alleged that she was taken to a chamber where her husband and the lawyer’s clerk were already there. She told the police that the accused overpowered her. Her husband allegedly grabbed her legs and sister-in-law caught her from behind with a chunni, following which the lawyer, his clerk and her brother-in-law allegedly raped her.
According to the complainant, the accused then dumped her near Gate No.4 of the Patiala House Courts. The woman told the police that she then started walking towards Supreme Court where she approached a Police Control Room team and narrated the incident to them. Subsequently, a message was flashed on the police communication system around 8 p.m. intimating the local police about the matter.
The complainant was taken to RML Hospital where she was medically examined. The police then recorded her statement and registered a case under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code. Investigations were handed over to a woman sub-inspector and following the standard procedure, a non-government organisation was also contacted for the woman’s counselling.
“We took the complainant to the Patiala House Courts where she identified the chamber, where, according to her, she was gang-raped. The scene of crime was immediately sealed. A team of forensic experts was also summoned to collect evidence from the spot,” said the officer.
The police contacted the lawyer in whose name the chamber has been allotted. “The lawyer told us that he had left the court complex around 6-30 p.m. after locking his chamber from outside. He said he had not given the keys to the lock to anyone, nor did he know the lawyer who has been accused of having raped the woman,” the officer said, adding that there were certain discrepancies in the complainant’s statement that were being probed.
For his part, the accused lawyer in his statement to the police said that he had never visited the Patiala House Courts complex in the past two years and he practised only in Karkardooma Courts.