New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a Bihar Police woman officer's plea against a Patna High Court order quashing the FIR against an IPS officer she has accused of raping her on the false promise of marriage. It posted the matter for hearing next month on March 24.
A bench of Justices K V Viswanathan and S V N Bhatti issued notice to the Bihar government and IPS officer Pushkar Anand on the matter. "Issue notice. List on March 24, 2025," the bench said. The woman is currently posted as superintendent of police (SP) with Patna CID.
Advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, appearing for the woman, argued that the high court order passed on September 19, 2024, was "perverse, devoid of any legal merits, beyond the facts of the case" besides being "contrary to the settled law".
The FIR was lodged against the IPS officer and his parents at the Mahila police station in Kaimur in Bihar on December 29, 2014 on a complaint by the woman officer.
While Anand was booked for rape and criminal intimidation, among other things, his parents were booked for abetting the crime. Two days after she joined as deputy SP in Bhabua, Anand, who was SP at the time, started making overtures to her through social media, the woman alleged. He allegedly showed an inclination to marry her, she reciprocated and the two developed physical relations, she added.
However, the marriage did not materialise because their horoscopes didn't match, the woman said. The high court said in its order that the woman was in a relationship with the IPS officer for quite some time and willingly stayed and established physical relations with him.
"If the relationship is not working out for reasons beyond the control of the parties, it cannot be a ground for lodging a case against the petitioner for an offence punishable under Section 376 of the IPC. Hence, initiation of criminal proceedings by the informant against the petitioner is wholly unwarranted," it said.
