Srinagar, May 17, 2014: A court in Srinagar reserved decision on a plea by a lady doctor for staying proceedings in the case against Congress leader and puppet former health minister Shabir Ahmad Khan accused of molesting the doctor in January 28 this year.
The victim has sought stay of the proceedings on the ground that an SLP was pending disposal before the Supreme Court of India. The SLP seeks setting aside the Jammu and Kashmir High Court order granting bail to the accused.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar Virender Singh Bhou reserved the verdict on the application after hearing rival parties.
Following directions of the court, counsels for the accused, Muhammad Abdullah Pandit and Saleem Jahangir, filed objections to the application of the victim seeking to halt the proceedings in the trial court.
Chief Prosecuting Officer, appearing for the State, has permitted Advocates Rafiq Ahmad Joo and Mir Shafaqat Hussain to assist the prosecution during the trial.
Police Station Shaheed Gunj in Srinagar has already presented charge-sheet against the accused before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar on April 3.
Khan was booked by police on February 6 this year after the lady doctor lodged a complaint with Police Station Shaheed Gunj Srinagar, accusing Khan of sexually assaulting her in his office at Winter Secretariat in Srinagar.
A case was registered against him under sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult modesty of a woman) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of Ranbir Penal Code.
The lady doctor had said that Khan of sexual harassment at Civil Secretariat in Srinagar this year.
In her complaint, the doctor accused Khan of molestation and behaving like a “sexual predator”. Khan, according to the FIR (09/2014), asked her all sort of bizarre questions and which traumatised her.
The minister, as per FIR, had forced the doctor to meet him at Civil Secretariat on the pretext of seeking details about funds sought for a health centre where she worked. When she visited the minister at his office in the evening on January 28, Khan met the doctor at an adjacent rest room.
He, according to FIR, asked her irrelevant questions, including details of her children, in the 15-minute-long meeting. Besides asking her opinion about him, Khan asked her whether she had served Kahwa (Kashmiri tea) to the guests during Azad’s visit.