M A I N   N E W S

Former IGP pleads innocence, secures bail
Ahlawat says Arvinder sought permission from his boss to marry him
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 22
Former Haryana IG of Police, Mahinder Singh Ahlawat, facing charges of molestation and sexual harassment when in office, was today granted interim bail till July 13 by Mr Justice Alok Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Justice Singh was of the view that nothing was to be recovered from the accused and his custodial interrogation was not required. He ordered the police to release Ahlawat on bail to the satisfaction of the arresting officer.

In a curious turn, the former police officer, against whom a criminal case has been registered on the complaint of a Yamunanagar-based lawyer, Arvinder Kaur, appeared before the media later in the afternoon and let his counsel reply to the charges. He arrived an hour late and only after frantic calls were made by his lawyer, Ajay Jain. When he finally appeared, he refused to say anything on the plea that the case was sub judice but allowed the lawyer to do the talking.

The lawyer maintained that though the court of law was the appropriate forum to decide the veracity of the charges, yet in view of the ‘practice of parallel media trial’ now in vogue, he wanted to place the facts before the media. “We will put up our defence before the court. But since distorted facts have been appearing in the media, we decided to place our side of story so that people can form their own opinion,” Jain said.

Jain, who had also represented former Haryana DGP S.P.S. Rathore, convicted in the Ruchika molestation case, pointed out that the alleged incident dated back to 2002, when Arvinder Kaur had approached Ahlawat, posted as SP, Yamunanagar then, in connection with a case against her in laws.

Jain claimed that the first complaint she made was in 2005 in which she alleged that Ahlawat spoke amorously with her over the telephone. In 2008 she alleged that Ahlawat had touched her shoulder when she went to meet him in his office. Two years later, the complainant alleged that Ahlawat made indecent overtures to her.

Ahlawat’s lawyer claimed that an inquiry was conducted against his client by the IG, Ambala Range, on the orders of the High Court. The IG had found the allegations unfounded and his report was accepted by the High Court. Similarly, he also claimed, her complaint was dismissed by the National Human Rights Commission.