Case Pending in Court, Kin of Devli Sexual Harassment Victim Allege Threats

New Delhi: In a fresh development in an alleged sexual harassment case related to a 32-year-old woman in South Delhi’s Devli, the victim’s kin has reported “growing pressure” by a police officer on them to withdraw the case, which is pending in court, including serious threats.

“The level of threats that we are receiving has reached another level altogether. We are now getting repeated WhatsApp calls by the SHO (station house officer) himself, who is asking us to withdraw the complaint,” the husband of the complainant alleged.  It may be recalled that Naresh Solanki, the SHO of New Delhi’s Neb Sarai police station, had earlier faced criticism for forcing the complainant in the CJI Ranjan Gogoi sexual harassment case to apologise to his wife.

The woman has alleged sexual harassment by doctor named Ashok Gupta, who also owns Medi Polyclinic in New Delhi’s Devli region in September this year. The complainant has accused the doctor of barging into her room while she was feeding her infant daughter and alleged that he then proceeded to “forcefully touch her inappropriately”.

The complainant, along with her husband and three-month-old daughter, said they living in fear and even hiding due to rising pressure to withdraw the complaint. The couple also shared call recordings of attempts being made to trace their address in the name of gift vouchers, property enquiries etc. Currently, the case is being heard before the Saket District Court, with the next hearing scheduled for later in November. 

“I was warned that if I do not withdraw the case, my husband would be implicated in false charges and his career will be destroyed,” the woman alleged, adding that unknown persons were turning up at their house asking them to withdraw the complaint. 

Also Read: SHO Allegedly Pressurised Sexual Harassment Victim to Withdraw Complaint

The complainant said she had tried to file a sexual harassment complaint on September 30, the day the alleged incident happened, after which she, along with her husband and daughter, were made to stay at the police station for over 12 hours, as the police refused to register her complaint. She also alleged that she was slapped and told to withdraw the accusations. 

Describing her ordeal, she said, “Initially, my husband had gone to the police station to register an FIR. After refusing to lodge the complaint, the police later came to our doorstep stating that they want to take our statement. We were taken to the Neb Sarai police station and no statement was recorded, instead I was told to withdraw the case. Along with my three-month-old child, my husband and I were kept in the police station until 10 in the night on the same day. We were released only when we withdrew our complaint.”

Previously, Solanki was posted at West Delhi’s Tilak Marg police station, when a case was reported against the present Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. The complainant, a former employee of the Supreme Court, had accused the CJI of sexual harassment and persecution. Along with her affidavit, the former employee also sent the judges copies of video recordings of several incidents she refers to in the document—in particular, that a station house officer named Naresh Solanki accompanied her to the CJI’s residence in January this year, where she was asked to apologise to his wife. 

She had then also accused the SHO of making repeated attempts to convince her to withdraw the complaint. However, an in-house probe panel set up by the Supreme Court later gave a clean chit to Gogoi in the case.

Meanwhile, to garner support for the Devli victim’s complaint and build pressure on the Delhi Police, an online petition has been initiated.