HC orders CBI probe into alleged rape of judicial officer

The Allahabad High Court has ordered a CBI inquiry into the alleged rape of a judicial officer inside her official residence at Aligarh in June this year.
A Division Bench comprising Justice V K Shukla and Justice Shashi Kant passed the order on September 12 while disposing of a petition filed by Gopal Gupta and another person.
Both the petitioners have been named as accused in the FIR lodged at Civil Lines Police Station by judicial officer's brother Dheeraj Jindal.
The FIR alleged that the accused, who were related to Dheeraj's estranged wife Ragini, had raped the informant's sister -- posted as an Additional Civil Judge -- on June two inside her residence.

Challenging the FIR, the petitioners had submitted that "it was impossible to conceive of a situation that a judicial officer residing in high security area under 24-hour police surveillance has been raped."
They said "this is a glaring case where lodging of the FIR is being used as a weapon of vengeance to harass the petitioners by all means fair and foul by a judicial officer."
Underscoring the need "to retain public confidence in impartial working of the state agencies and to ensure that the truth should come out and no one is over and above the law", the Bench directed the Aligarh SSP to hand over papers related to the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

"As the matter pertains to a judicial officer, the CBI after concluding the probe should inform the Registrar General about the outcome of the investigation for being placed before the Hon'ble Chief Justice," the court said.