The Madras High Court Bench here has confirmed the acquittal of two former officials in the audit wing of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department from a case booked against them on charges of making sarcastic and lewd remarks against a Dalit woman Audit Inspector.
Dismissing a criminal appeal filed by the victim S.P. Shanthi, Justice S. Nagamuthu held that a Sessions Court here had rightly acquitted former Deputy Chief Audit Officer K. Sivanesan and Regional Audit Officer Balakrishnan on July 7 for want of sufficient evidence to prove the charges.
The judge pointed out that the alleged incident had reportedly occurred in January 2009 when the two officers had come to the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple here for auditing but a complaint had been lodged at the temple police station only on February 22, 2011. Though the appellant had claimed to have made a complaint on February 3, 2009 itself, the judge said: “That complaint has not seen the light of the day.
It is not known as to what are all the contents of that complaint. The said complaint has been suppressed.”
Further, the victim had contended that she had also lodged a complaint with the State Commission for Women on March 17, 2009 and that the then chairperson of the commission Qudsia Gandhi came down to Madurai to conduct an enquiry with respect to the alleged incident.
However, “neither any record has been produced to prove the same nor Ms. Qudsia Gandhi had been examined as a witness during the course of trial… Hence, the oral evidence adduced by the appellant on this aspect is only to be rejected,” the judge added.
In her complaint, the victim had claimed that her superiors had branded her to be an “orthodog” and not “orthodox” since she refused to accept a cup of coffee offered by one of them.
They also allegedly made fun of her for applying lipstick and talcum powder.
