SC relief for journalist granted pre-arrest bail
The Supreme Court, on Friday, refused to interfere with the grant of anticipatory bail to a Mumbai TV journalist, Varun Hiremath, dismissing a petition by a 22-year old woman from Pune accusing him of raping her in the national capital.
Mr Hiremath is an anchor and news analyst with a news channel associated with a leading economic paper.
The woman had approached the top court challenging the May 13 order of the Delhi high court granting Mr Hiremath an anticipatory bail.
The petitioner had, as an interim relief, sought a stay of the Delhi high court’s order, stating that the high court granted the anticipatory bail to the accused journalist in a clear case of rape and assault despite the fact that he had absconded to deliberately evade the non-bailable warrant issued by the police under Section 82 of the CrPC on a complaint lodged by her at t h e Chanakyapuri police station in the diplomatic area of Delhi.
A high court had, on May 13, allowed Mr Hiremath interim protection from arrest on the condition that he shall join the investigation whenever required.
A Delhi court had earlier issued a non-bailable warrant against him rejecting his anticipatory bail application and the Delhi police was also in the process of announcing a reward for his arrest since he had absconded.
The FIR lodged with the police accused him under Sections 376 (rape), 342 (wrongful consignment), and 509 (insulting a woman’s modesty) of the IPC. The Delhi police had issued a lookout circular barring him from leaving the country.