During today’s hearing, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Advocate Priyanak Tibrewal told the Court that she had received phone calls from the victims of the alleged sexual assault. She claimed that the women were threatened against filing cases against Sheikh or his men.
“Ssome strangers have walked into their homes in night, telling them that they have already lost their honour and now if they file rape case they will lose their lives. Therefore, women are scared to lodge a complaint even with the CBI,” Tibrewal told the judges.
Advocate Alakh Srivastava, one of the petitioners in the case, urged the Bench to constitute either an all-women committee or ask the CBI to send only women officers to record the statements of the victims, as was done in the Manipur violence case.
The Bench, however, left it on the wisdom of the CBI officials, to evolve a mechanism to “build confidence” among the victims so that they can come forward and lodge their complaints.
The matter will be next heard on June 14.
Source: Barandbench
