No relief for activist Trupti Desai; faces imminent arrest
In a major setback to women's rights activist Trupti Desai, the Bombay High Court recently turned down her plea seeking pre-arrest relief. This means, Desai can now be arrested by the Pune police at any time.
Desai along with her husband Prashant and two others was named in a First Information Report (FIR) registered with the Pune police in July last year. All the four have been booked under provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for abusing a man in relation to his caste. They have also been booked for assaulting and robbing a man.
A division bench of Justice Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Justice Prakash Naik refused to grant her anticipatory bail saying, "We are not going into the truth and falsity of the allegations at this stage. Once this complaint is perused in its entirety, particularly in the backdrop of the provisions of the SCST Act, we cannot term this complaint as a patent false version."
"Merely because the complaint was made after some time, does not mean that allegations under the SCST Act are not, prima facie, satisfied. In these circumstances, we do not think that a case for anticipatory bail is made out. The appeal is dismissed," Justice Dharmadhikari ruled.
Desai had petitioned the judges challenging the orders of a lower court in Pune, which rejected their plea for anticipatory bail.
It may be noted that Desai, the lady who spearheaded the women's rights campaign, was accused of assaulting a man along with her husband and two other aides. It has been alleged that Desai also robbed off the man's cell phone and some cash. She is also accused of abusing the man in the name of his caste.
In her defence, Desai claimed that assault never took place. She also claimed that the complainant man has converted into Christianity so there was no point in invoking provisions of SCST Act.
Desai argued that since she was involved into social service, the FIR against her was just a move to malign her image in the society.
However, Justice Dharmadhikari refused to accept her contentions and turned down her plea seeking pre-arrest relief.