Allahabad High Court denies bail to lawyer accused of sexually assaulting law student

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday refused to grant bail to a lawyer accused of sexually assaulting a law student training under him [Rajkaran Patel v State of UP]..Justice Samit Gopal refused the plea seeking bail on the ground that no reasons were given by the accused in his plea to buttress the submission that this was a false accusation, and the investigation against the other accused remained pending. "The allegations are against a person practicing law and is a person in uniform involved in a noble profession. The office of a lawyer is not less respected than Courts of law", the single-judge observed. .The First Information Report (FIR) was lodged by the father of the prosecutrix against the applicant, advocate Rajkaran Patel and another person with regard to an incident where the prosecutrix was allegedly enticed away. She was about 20 years old, pursuing LL.B. and was practicing at the High Court with the applicant, as per the FIR. .The applicant sought bail on the grounds that he was falsely implicated, there were discrepancies in the statement of the prosecutrix and there was a lack of medical evidence. It was further claimed that the prosecutrix kept changing and improving her version..However, the State opposed the bail plea arguing that the case was one where an advocate exploited a law student on the pretext of imparting legal training to her. It was also submitted that being an advocate, there were chances of the applicant tampering with evidence, if released on bail..The Court took note of the fact that the name and role assigned to the applicant by the prosecutrix was consistent, and the apprehension that the applicant may influence the investigation or tamper with evidence could not ruled out. The single-judge also considered the nature of allegations of sexual and physical assault, which continued for a substantially long period of time. "Looking to (sic) the facts and circumstances of the case, I do not find it a fit case for bail, hence, the bail application is rejected," the Court ordered. .The applicant was represented by advocates Rajiv Lochan Shukla and Ravikant Shukla while the State was represented by Government Advocate Sukhvir Singh..[Read Order]