The Supreme Court said no accused in a sexual harassment case was entitled to access a woman complainant’s statement recorded by a magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code till the trial court took cognisance of the chargesheet. This comes because of case involving former minister Swami Chinmayanand, who had been MoS home in the Vajpayee government.
The Supreme Court said, “The filing of the chargesheet by itself does not entitle an accused to copies of any of the relevant documents, including statement under Section 164 of the Code. No person is entitled to a copy of statement recorded under Section 164 of the Code till the appropriate orders are passed by the court after the chargesheet is filed.”
The SC had ordered, “We are not expressing any opinion regarding the grievances expressed by the girl Miss A and apprehensions of her parents. All that we wish to point out is that the correctness of the grievances/apprehension has to be addressed as per the procedure established in law. In view of above, we direct the chief secretary, Uttar Pradesh, to constitute a special team headed by a police officer in the rank of the inspector general of police to be assisted by the superintendent of police and a team of police officers to enquire into the grievances expressed by Miss A and insofar as the apprehension expressed by the parents of Miss A.”
According to media report, the SC had also asked the SIT so constituted to investigate the FIR lodged by Chinmayanand about alleged blackmail and demand of extortion money and had requested the chief justice of Allahabad HC to monitor the investigations. The chargesheet was filed after investigations and immediately the accused moved the court for supply of a copy of the Section 164 CrPC statement of the complainant, which was given by the HC to the accused.