Supreme Court upholds bail granted to former Andaman Chief Secretary Jitendra Narain in rape case

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed petitions challenging a Calcutta High Court order granting bail to former Andaman and Nicobar Islands Chief Secretary Jitendra Narain in a gangrape case [XXX vs Union Territotory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and anr]..A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah, however, asked the Union Territory administration to look into the complainant's safety and also directed parties to cooperate to ensure an expeditious trial in the rape case."We find that the High Court was right in not dealing with the respective arguments. We have refrained ourselves from referring to certain facts. We have dismissed all the petitions. We have directed the UT to look into complaints of safety made by the victim .We have directed the trial court to expedite the trial and parties are to cooperate," Justice Nath stated in reading out the operative part of the verdict.The order was passed in appeals filed by the complainant-survivor and the Union Territory (UT) of Andaman & Nicobar Islands against a Calcutta High Court order of February 20..Narain is facing investigation on the allegation that he along with the other accused committed gang rape on the complainant-woman on two occasions.After the woman had accused Narain of rape and sexual abuse, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had placed him under suspension and initiated disciplinary proceedings against him. A first information report (FIR) was registered against him on October 1, 2022 for sexual assault and gangrape.The Supreme Court in November last year refused to interfere with a Calcutta High Court order granting him anticipatory bail in the matter.Subsequently, the High Court had in February this year granted regular bail to Narain.This led to the appeal before the apex court.The counsel for the survivor argued before the top court that the High Court had mechanically granted bail. Further, it had ignored the Sessions Court's findings that Narain is an influential person and had tampered with evidence..The top court in its judgment noted that the High Court had 'neither dealt with the real issue', nor indicated reasons that are germane in considering a bail application. However, the bench independently considered the matter on merits and saw no reason to interfere with the conclusion.Narain was directed to submit his passport(s) to the trial court.It was made clear that the onus of ensuring the complainant's safety is on the Union Territory administration. "The Union Territory Police is put to notice in this regard. Insofar as the Petitioner claims that the Director-General of Police has not acted on her subsequent complaints seeking registration of First Information Reports against certain other persons, the Director-General is directed to examine the same and take an independent decision on what action, if any, is called for, in accordance with law, within ten days from today", the bench observed..[Read judgment]