Sexual harassment case against Sandeep Singh: Complainant moves plea in court seeking day-to-day trial

The woman coach who has accused Haryana minister Sandeep Singh of sexual harassment on Tuesday moved an application in a local court seeking day-to-day trial in the case.

Sandeep Singh, 37, is a former captain of the Indian hockey team and was booked by Chandigarh Police on December 31, 2022, on the complaint of the junior athletics coach. He had on January 1 given up his sports portfolio.

The final report submitted runs into 700 pages and the Chandigarh Police have invoked Sections 354 (outraging woman’s modesty), 354 A, 354 B, 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The complainant’s counsel moved multiple applications on Tuesday. The first of these was for committal of the present case to the court of session for trial. The application mentioned “That there are clear-cut allegations not only in the initial complaint, the statement given to the police, but also in the victim’s statement recorded by the magistrate, which constitute an offence of attempted rape by the accused.”

“The offence of attempt to rape being exclusively triable by the court of session, the present case deserves to be committed for the purpose of trial to the court of session. Hence, this application,” it added.

The second application is the one seeking the trial on a day-to-day basis.

The counsels mentioned that the accused is a sitting member of legislative assembly. The application mentions that the Supreme Court has categorically directed other courts to expeditiously decide the pending cases against sitting/former legislators and in compliance of the above said judgement the Punjab and Haryana high court is regularly monitoring such cases. “Under these circumstances the present case also comes under this category and the same is also liable to be decided expeditiously on a day-to-day basis as per the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India,” it added.

A third application was filed seeking a complete set of documents: “Application for issuing directions to the Chandigarh Police, the investigating officer to supply the copy of final report under section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, as amended along with complete documents whether relied upon or not relied upon by the prosecution.”

Two more applications for imposing conditions upon the accused as envisaged under the law be allowed and seeking action against the woman’s landlords for revealing her identity were also moved.

The court has issued a notice and the case will next be heard on October 21.