No departmental proceedings against minister, says coach

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Chandigarh, March 2

A woman coach, who has levelled molestation charges against state Minister of State for Printing and Stationery, Sandeep Singh, has alleged that no departmental proceedings, as envisaged in Vishakha Vs State of Rajasthan case decided by the apex court, have been initiated by constituting a committee as the case pertains to harassment of women at workplace.

In arguments submitted through her advocate for the framing of charges, she said specific evidence was collected by the prosecution which was reflected in the summary report under Section 173, CrPC, that after filing of the complaint, the accused had approached her through one Anil for compromise. She said he approached her through a WhatsApp call on January 5, 2023, with prosecution witness Raj Kumar Mittan, Secretary Athletics Haryana and Joint Secretary, Athletic Federation of India, to compromise.

“The deposition of witness Raj Kumar Mittan is probably supported by the scientific evidence with regard to their telephonic conversation, unfortunately, the copy of the same is not supplied to the victim. It is a settled dictum of law that a victim of sexual offence case is an injured witness and her sole testimony is sufficient to convict an accused, but in the present case, there are testimonies of senior IPS and senior officials of the Sports Department which points out to the fact that immediately after the incident the victim/complainant had confided in them, who instead of encouraging her to fight for her rights, had asked her to ignore the incident,” she said.