Rashmi Behl vs State Of U.P & Ors

2. The writ petition before us shows that the ordeal of the petitioner began in the year 2010 when the father and her family alleged to have started coercing her to join the flesh trade/prostitution. Upon realizing petitioner's unwillingness, father and the family tried to sell her off to an elderly man of about 65 to 70 years in Punjab. Upon becoming aware of the nefarious designs of the accused persons, petitioner somehow managed to escape from her parental home in Meerut and escaped to Haridwar, from where she was brought back by some Samaritans to the office of DIG Meerut, where she narrated her ordeal. Petitioner was sent to the custody of her parents with a stern warning, which was not complied. As such, she was then given into the custody of Ms. Asha Madho, who was an ex-teacher of the petitioner. However, in the midnight of 1/2.9.2011 in the absence of the custodian, her parents along with their relatives with police assistance said to have forcibly took her away. Thereafter, petitioner complained to the Police that she was held in captivity by her father and anything can happen to her in such circumstances. Taking action on the said letter, the SHO produced the petitioner before the City Magistrate on 5.9.2011, where the petitioner stated that she was a major and should be allowed to stay free as per her wishes and her custody should not be given to her father and family. Father of the petitioner also moved an application before the City Magistrate stating that his daughter was mentally unstable on which an order was passed to refer the petitioner to a hospital for mental medical examination, in which she was declared mentally sound. The City Magistrate passed an order giving the custody of the petitioner to Ms. Asha Madho. It was also ordered that Ms. Asha Madho will produce the petitioner before the Court as and when required.

3. Aggrieved by the order, father of the petitioner preferred a Revision Petition before the Additional District Judge, Meerut seeking custody of the petitioner. Petitioner was produced before the court and when being asked about her choice, she refused to go with her father and told the court that her father had earlier raped her and wanted to sell her. By way of a letter Ms. Asha Madho showed her unwillingness to take custody of the petitioner on the ground of her own sickness and criminal background of petitioner's parents. Hence, the petitioner further showed her desire to go along with Ms. Aparna Gautam, sister-in-law of Ms. Asha Madho. On 15.10.2011, the Additional District Judge partly allowed the revision petition and set aside order dated 16.9.2011 regarding the custody of the petitioner being given to Ms. Asha Madho and held that the petitioner being an adult is free to reside wherever she decides to live.

4. It is alleged by the petitioner that after the Court had risen, accused persons forcibly dragged her out of the Court and took her to various places within Meerut and thereafter to Ludhiyana, Punjab, and throughout this period the petitioner was repeatedly assaulted and raped by her father and his accomplices. Subsequently, in November 2011, Mrs. Aparna Gautam filed a writ of Habeas Corpus before the Allahabad High Court. Consequently, the petitioner was produced before the High Court on 16.1.2012, where she gave details of assault, rape and abduction. On 30.1.2012, consequent to petitioner's statement, learned Single Judge of the High Court disposed of the writ petition setting her at liberty to go anywhere including the opportunity to go along with Mrs. Aparna Gautam.

5. On several occasions the petitioner tried to lodge a FIR with regard to abduction, repeated assault and rape while she was in illegal custody of the respondents. On 16.1.2013, the petitioner wrote a complaint to the SSP Meerut, Uttar Pradesh for registering her FIR against the respondents. On 21.01.2013, finally FIR No.31/2013 was registered against the respondents under Sections 366, 323, 504 and 376 of IPC at Lisadi Gate Police Station, Meerut instead of Civil Lines Police Station.

10. In compliance of the aforesaid order, the petitioner appeared before the Chief Judicial Magistrate and her statement was recorded and the same was forwarded to this Court. We have gone through the statement made by the petitioner before the Chief Judicial Magistrate. In her statement, she has made serious allegations against her father allegedly committing rape since 2007. She also stated that when she was residing with her Asha Madam, her parents along with many persons including Police personnel (which did not have any lady police) forcibly took her away from there to the Police Station, from where she was handed over to her parents. She stated that her parents used to misbehave with her. She has also stated that on 15.10.2011, after the decision of the Magistrate declaring her major and could reside at her will, her aunt Anjana Malik and Ranjana Vasudeva dragged her outside Court, where more than 15 persons were present including her father Ravinder Behl, Safar Borga, Ravinder Singh, Advocate, Tarun Behl, Reeta Behl, Roma Behl, Sanjay Aggarwal, Dharamveer Narang, Inderjeet, Harvinder Singh, Harsh Behl, Rakesh Vasudeva and all of them including police personnel took her dragging up to the main door of the Court and put her in white colour Santro Car, which had been driven by Pawan Malik.

11. In her statement she has alleged that she was kidnapped and taken to the house of her aunt (Bhuwa) and then to the house of Harsh Behl, where she was abused and her father forcing her for prostitution told that in their business goods once sold is never taken back and they are bound to hand it over dead or alive. Harsh Behl stated to her that they would have also kidnapped Aparna Gautam if gathering would not have saved her. Thereafter, Harsh Behl raped her. She has also alleged sexual assault by Dharamveer Narang, Constable Dayashankar, DIG Prem Prakash, Manish Mishra, Sunny Ahuja, Deshraj Ahuja, Tilak Narang and Toofan alias Raj Kumar. She amended her statement saying that name of Manish Mishra was taken by mistake as he was not present there and the name of the man was Dr. B.P. Ashok. She has also alleged that on 17.10.2010 Inderjeet and Harvinder raped her in the presence of Preety Khurana and Urmila Kathuria, who did not save her despite repeated prayer. Thereafter, she was taken to Ludhiyana, where as alleged by her, father used to rape her. Upon filing of Habeas Corpus petition by Aparna Gautam, she was produced by her parents in the High Court, where she stated that she did not want to go with her parents since she was being raped by her father and his accomplices. She has also alleged that when Aparna Gautam had gone to DIG with a request letter to meet petitioner, DIG physically assaulted her and when she was conversing with Media at the Commissioner Square, she was taken away by the police and implicated her in false case and was also imprisoned. She has submitted that many I.Os. have changed and despite various letters written by her, no I.O. turned up even on 18.3.2014, when she was sitting in the Chambers of her advocate in the Saket Courts. However, when her advocate had gone to attend other case, her parents entered into the Chamber and threatened her to keep quite. She stated that her Parvikar Aparna Gautam is being harassed since she helped her.

12. As noticed above, as against the order passed by the City Magistrate on 5.9.2011, before whom the petitioner has stated that she was a major and should be allowed to stay free as per her wishes, the father of the petitioner filed a revision petition before the Additional District Judge,Meerut seeking custody of the petitioner on the ground that she was mentally unstable. The Additional District Judge by setting aside the order of the City Magistrate regarding custody of the petitioner being given to Mrs. Asha Madho held that the petitioner being an adult is free to reside where she decides to live. The City Magistrate, before passing the aforesaid order, got the petitioner medically examined in which she was declared mentally sound. The Additional District Judge in revisional order had observed that the father of the petitioner made a false statement that the petitioner was mentally unfit.

17. We, therefore, allow this petition and direct the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the case independently and in an objective manner and to conclude the same in accordance with law.

..................................J. (M.Y. Eqbal) ..................................J. (Shiva Kirti Singh) New Delhi February 17, 2015 ITEM NO.1B COURT NO.11 SECTION X S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Writ Petition(s)(Criminal) No(s). 218/2013 RASHMI BEHL Petitioner(s) VERSUS STATE OF U.P & ORS Respondent(s) [HEARD BY HON'BLE M.Y.EQBAL AND HON'BLE SHIVA KIRTI SINGH, JJ.] Date : 17/02/2015 This petition was called on for judgment today.

Hon'ble Mr. Justice M.Y.Eqbal pronounced the judgment of the Bench comprising His Lordship and Hon'ble Mr. Justice Shiva Kirti Singh.

The writ petition is allowed in terms of the Reportable judgment, which is placed on the file.