Arrest will damage career: J&K HC grants bail to IAF officer accused of rape | Latest News from India

The Supreme Court asked him not to leave the Union Territory and to provide surety for ₹50,000. The court also allowed the investigation to continue but directed the police not to file a chargesheet without its permission.

“The prima facie case for pardon is presently with the petitioner, who is serving as a Wing Commander at Srinagar Air Force Base and whose reputation and military career would be jeopardised if he were arrested,” Justice Rajnesh Oswal said in his order.

The court requested a status report by the next hearing and ordered that he be released on bail if arrested.

“He shall not leave the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir without the permission of his Commanding Officer and shall not contact any prosecution witnesses in person or otherwise. He shall appear before the IO from 14.09.2024 to 16.09.2024 and thereafter as required,” the order said.

The officer, stationed at the Srinagar air force base, had filed a police complaint alleging that the wing commander had sexually harassed her on New Year's Eve and that several lapses in the internal investigation had led to further harassment and mental torture.

Based on her complaint filed at Budgam police station in Srinagar on September 8, the Jammu and Kashmir Police filed a First Information Report under Section 376(2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and initiated an investigation into the allegations.

The officer also demanded legal action against five “offenders”, including an Air Commodore, three Group Captains and a Wing Commander, and alleged that there were a number of lapses in the internal investigation that led to “sustained mental harassment”. The FIR, however, did not provide any details about her involvement in the case.

According to the allegations in the FIR, seen by HT, the incident took place eight months ago after a New Year's Eve party at an officers' mess on December 31, when the wing commander allegedly asked the complainant if she had received any gift on the occasion. When she replied in the negative, the officer allegedly took her to his room – where the gifts were kept and his family was not present – and forced her to have oral sex with him, she claimed.

“I repeatedly asked him to stop and tried to resist in every possible way. Finally, I pushed him away and ran away,” her complaint states. The officer was commissioned into the IAF two years ago and this is her first posting.

In the FIR, she claimed that she had confided to two female officers that she had been sexually assaulted and they had urged her to file an official complaint, following which a committee of inquiry was ordered. According to her, during the hearing on January 29 and 30, 2024, the wing commander was forced to sit next to her, which she objected to as it was against the rules in such cases.

“The internal committee did not do its job properly as instructions came from higher up to keep the outcome neutral. All of them were helping the sex offender… I have asked for interim maintenance and leave several times but I have been denied leave every time. I have requested that either myself or the wing commander be posted from here but till date both are posted at the same place. I am forced to associate with these people and attend functions with my tormentor,” she alleged in the FIR.

In her complaint, the officer also claimed that she was harassed by the authorities while the squadron commander was having fun. The investigation ended on May 15.

“The ongoing harassment has taken a serious toll on my mental health. I live in constant fear, am under 24/7 surveillance and my social life has been completely destroyed. The harassment has driven me to suicidal thoughts and I feel completely helpless. I have endured this torture for too long and am at the end of my rope.”

She claimed that a person she had spoken to had been arrested and interrogated by the local authorities on the orders of a Group Captain and that a committee of inquiry had been set up against her with the task of “investigating a report of an authorised stay of an Army officer in the living quarters of a Flying Officer (the plaintiff).”