Chandigarh: The District Court Solan in Himachal Pradesh has admitted an appeal against a Kasauli court order which accepted a cancellation report filed by Kasauli Police in a case of alleged gang rape lodged against Haryana BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli and the state government’s former publicity advisor Rocky Mittal.
Dr Arvind Malhotra, the District and Sessions Judge, Solan, who took up the case Tuesday, has sought the records of the case from the court of judicial magistrate, Kasauli.
The appellant, a woman and a resident of Delhi, had lodged an FIR on 13 December, 2024 at Kasauli police station under sections 376D (gang rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Badoli and Mittal. In her complaint, the woman alleged that in July 2023, the accused, Badoli and Mittal, coerced her into drinking alcohol at a hotel in Kasauli, Solan district, before sexually assaulting her.
She further alleged that they recorded compromising videos and took explicit photos of her.
Himachal Pradesh Police later submitted a closure report, citing lack of evidence, and Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Prashant Singh Negi, Kasauli accepted it on 12 March.
The Judicial Court Complex, Kasauli had twice issued summons to the woman at both of her addresses to record her statement before making a final decision on the closure report.
However, the woman did not receive any summons, her legal counsel told ThePrint.
In her appeal, she argued that the magistrate’s decision is legally flawed, as cases under Section 376D should be dealt with by a special court rather than the ACJM.
Her legal counsel, A.S. Gujral, Manjot Gujral, and Gaurav Charaya, told ThePrint Tuesday that they have appealed before the Sessions Court that the order is “illegal, arbitrary, and against the facts and evidence on record”, and hence they sought to have it set aside and demand a fresh hearing.
The Sessions Court will now take a call on her appeal and determine whether the cancellation order should be overturned.
The woman is also facing an FIR registered against her in Panchkula in connection with an alleged honey-trapping case.
Around the time the Kasauli court was to take a call on the cancellation report filed by the Kasauli Police, the Panchkula Police registered an FIR against the complainant, along with another woman, businessman and politician Amit Bindal—who, according to the FIR in the gang rape case, had accompanied the woman to Kasauli on the day of the alleged incident—and an unidentified person.
The Sessions Court in Solan has announced 22 April as the next date of hearing in this case.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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