NRI rape case: Gujarat HC issues notice to Govt on CBI probe

The plea has been filed by the NRI woman, who has alleged she was raped by Gujarat CID officials when she was in police custody in a land grabbing case.

"It's been more than ten days since she lodged a complaint, but police have not even bothered to register an FIR against the culprits. This confirms her belief that she is not going to get justice if probe is in the hands of Gujarat Police," argued B B Nayak, counsel for the NRI woman.

Justice R H Shukla also asked the Inspector of the city's Meghaninagar police station, where the woman had lodged the complaint, to submit his reply through an affidavit and fixed the next hearing of the case on July 30.

The woman, an accused in a case of land grabbing near Vadodara, had filed the complaint on July 14 alleging she was raped by CID officials and a co-accused after her arrest in June. CID is probing the land grabbing case.

An officer of rank of Additional Director General of Police was also involved in the incident, she had alleged.

Authorities decided to conduct a probe before lodging an FIR and forwarded her complaint to Women Cell headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Parikshita Rathore.

During the hearing today, the HC sought to know why the woman had not mentioned about the "rape" incident to the Magistrate's court when she was produced before it at the end of her remand period.

To this, the petitioner's advocate submitted that during the remand period, she was threatened by higher police authorities with dire consequences if she revealed anything in the court.