SC stay on bail to Jindal University ex-students convicted in rape case

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the bail granted to three former students of a Haryana university who were convicted by a trial court for sexual abuse of a varsity student in 2015 but granted bail by the High Court.

Staying the bail granted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court till further orders, an apex court bench of Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar sought responses from the Haryana government and other respondents.

The apex court order came on a plea by the young woman, who was pursuing a management course at Jindal Global University when the alleged crime was committed.

The High Court, while granting bail to Hardik Sikri, Vikas Garg and Karan Chhabra, had stayed the sentence awarded to them by a trial court after their conviction.

The three were not granted bail during their trial due to the apprehension that they would tamper with the evidence.

While the young woman was a student of second year in the five-year integrated BBA/MBA course at the Sonipat varsity, the three men were students of Jindal Global Law School on the same campus.

"... while suspending their sentences, the High Court passed several remarks on the general character of the victim by describing her conduct as promiscuous. Moreover, the High Court made wholly unwarranted observations to the effect that the complainant indulged in casual sex, adventurism and experimentation in sexual encounters," the young woman said in her appeal.

--IANS

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