SC grants relief to Ravish Kumar’s brother in sexual offence case

The Supreme Court, on Monday, has granted anticipatory bail to former Bihar Congress vice-president Brajesh Kumar, who is journalist Ravish Kumar’s elder brother, in an alleged sexual offence case. He had been booked under Sections 376, 506 and 109 of the IPC.

In what can be seen as a series of turnabouts, the initial case was filed on December 22, 2016, and then four other persons were booked under the POCSO Act, SC/ST Act (the girl is a Dalit) and IPC provisions at the SC/ST police station in Patna. In this FIR, Kumar’s name was not included, stated senior lawyers Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, who had appeared for Kumar.

The girl was then called to record her statement in front of the magistrate, where she stated that the boy had misled her with promises. The police had filed a final report in the case. Soon, the case was sent to a special investigation team and then three weeks later, Kumar’s name was added to the probe.

The girl was called to record another statement where she alleged Kumar misbehaved with her in the presence of others. However, the police did not file a chargesheet in the case as no evidence was not found.

“After his name was included in the case, Brajesh moved an application for bail at the sessions court, where his request was denied and the court issued an arrest warrant. Following this, he applied for bail at the High Court. By then the boy and the girl had agreed to get married. Despite pointing this out to the High Court, Brajesh was refused bail,” emphasised Tankha.

After his bail application was refused at the Patna High Court, Kumar approached the Supreme Court for relief. “In the intervening time, the boy against whom the case was filed was granted bail so that he could marry the girl. So now they are married. Despite this development, Brajesh hasn’t been granted bail,” added Tanka.

“This case is nothing but a joke and complete vendetta aimed at silencing Ravish Kumar,” underscores Tankha.

Earlier this year, Ravish Kumar was trolled by right wing activists for not having spoken against his brother. In the wake of accusations that Brajesh was being shielded for being his brother, Ravish had released a statement to the media acknowledging the charges against his brother. In the statement, he had added that he was certain the charges against his brother were false and hoped that the truth would come out soon.