SC to hear ex-Army officer's plea to quash rape chargesheet on Monday

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea filed by a former army officer seeking quashing of a chargesheet against him in an alleged rape case.

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah is likely to hear a plea filed by Capt. Rakesh Walia (retired) challenging an order of the Delhi high court which dismissed his petition.

The plea filed by advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey contended that the high court ignored the important fact that "maliciously, wrongfully" seven FIRs have been registered by the complainant against nine different persons at seven different police stations, including the petitioner,in the last eight years.

The high court in its order dated July 31 had said that the trial court is seized of the matter, and will pass an appropriate order after considering the arguments on behalf of the petitioner.

"It is submitted that the petitioner is 63-years-old and a decorated officer of the Indian Army with critical medical ailments, having suffered a massive heart attack with two stents implanted and was also diagnosed with cancer and clinically declared as a highly immune-compromised case," the plea submitted.

"He is the victim of an unscrupulous abuser of the process of Law whose modus operandi is extorting hard-earned monies from respectable citizens like him by misusing benevolent provisions of law like rape and molestation, and implicating innocent citizens in false cases," the plea said.

According to the petition, during the COVID-19 lockdown around 2019-2020, the petitioner was contacted by the complainant, who claimed to be a social media influencer, for promotion of his book "Broken Crayons Can Still Colour" on various social media platforms to reach a wider reach of audience.

The petitioner got interested in the offer proposed by the complainant and immediately after the lockdown around June 2021, decided to engage her service, the plea said.

Thereafter, on December 29, 2021 the petitioner agreed to meet the girl in person to discuss the modalities for promoting his autobiography book and they met at the Chhattarpur Metro Station and drove towards Noida, it added.

"Later that day, the girl was dropped by the petitioner in front of the police post at Botanical Garden Metro Station, Sector 38, Noida. Thereafter, to the utter shock and consternation of the petitioner herein, he received a call at around 6:00 pm from police post of Sector 37 Noida, informing him that the respondent No. 2 (girl) came to the police post at around 5 pm and tried to file some complaint, alleging that the petitioner had raped her at 4:15 PM after offering her some intoxicating drink," the plea submitted.