HC suspends labour court judge in molestation case

Gujarat High Court has suspended a labour court judge for allegedly molesting his female colleague and consuming liquor.
According to sources in the high court, D S Chaudhary was suspended yesterday as three FIRs were lodged against him in Dharampur police station in South Gujarat's Valsad district last week.
He was arrested yesterday after police completed the formalities in the high court required for arresting a judge (Class-I officer). However, he was later released on bail.
Sources in Registrar General's office in the high court said that he was suspended from service yesterday with immediate effect.
According to police, Chaudhary had been harassing the woman typist for the past three months. The girl, a resident of Malanpada village in Valsad district, had told her parents about it.

According to her complaint last week, the judge, who was on leave for a few days, followed her to her village when she was returning home after getting down from the bus with her father on a two-wheeler.
The girl's father warned the judge, but when he didn't relent, villagers gathered and thrashed him and handed him over to police. Police also found a bottle of beer in his car at the time of incident, due to which case under prohibition laws was also lodged against him.
Police have booked him under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) of the Indian Penal Code and various sections of the Gujarat Prohibition Act.