Yamunanagar District and Sessions Judge R. C. Godhara on Wednesday denied anticipatory bail to retired Haryana Inspector-General of Police M. S. Ahlawat against whom the police had recently registered a case of alleged sexual harassment of a woman advocate in May 2002 when he was posted as Yamunanagar Superintendent of Police.
The police had registered the case on June 8 and constituted a special investigation team headed by a Deputy Superintendent of Police to investigate the eight-year-old matter.
Mr. Ahlawat had filed the plea for anticipatory bail on June 10 and Mr. Godhara had fixed June 14 as the next date of hearing and the case was subsequently adjourned till today.
Earlier, the complainant's advocate while pleading for the rejection of the bail plea strongly argued that the top police officer had been using his influence and it was quite patent that he had been shielded as he had not been summoned and questioned even once in the inquiries conducted in this case all these years.
However, the lawyers of the accused countered the argument and asserted that Mr. Ahlawat was being falsely implicated in the case. They later told media persons that an appeal would be preferred in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against today's order.
It may be recalled that the woman advocate had charged in her complaint that Mr. Ahlawat had summoned her to his camp office at his residence in May 2002 in connection with a case she had got registered against her husband and in-laws and allegedly intimidated and tried to sexually harass her.
She had been running from pillar to post all these years to get her “complaint'' registered and her efforts fructified last week. She told media persons that following the rejection of the anticipatory bail plea, the police must immediately arrest the retired cop.
