Supreme Court slams ex-superintendent of Bihar women’s home for alleged sexual exploitation of inmates. Cancels her bail, saying her actions “shook the conscience of the court.”
New Delhi: Today, on July 21, the Supreme Court of India has cancelled the bail of a former superintendent of a government-run women’s protection home in Bihar, who is accused of sexually exploiting and mentally torturing vulnerable women inmates.
The apex court observed that the person, who was supposed to act as a protector, misused her position in the worst possible way.
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A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta took serious note of the allegations and allowed the plea filed by a survivor belonging to a Scheduled Caste community.
The court overturned the Patna High Court’s bail order dated January 18, 2024, granted to the accused.
The Supreme Court, while cancelling the bail, made a strong observation stating,
“It is clearly a case, wherein the person put in the role of a saviour has turned into a devil.”
According to the court’s order,
“We may like to note that the allegations attributed to respondent 2 shook the conscience of the court. Respondent 2 being posted as the officer in-charge of the women’s protection home was required to work as a protector of the inmates, but she turned rogue and indulged in sexual exploitation of the helpless and destitute women who had been placed in the said protection home which is an institution created to provide them safety and security.”
The matter had first come to light after the Patna High Court took suo motu cognisance of a newspaper report which exposed the harrowing experiences of the women living in the shelter home. The FIR was filed following this intervention, and the investigation was directly supervised by the High Court.
The survivor had raised serious allegations against the ex-superintendent, including being drugged and injected with unknown substances.
It was also alleged that not only the survivor but other women too were given such substances and later sent outside the shelter home, where they were sexually exploited by influential individuals.
Justice Sandeep Mehta, who wrote the verdict, added,
“Grave allegations are attributed to the respondent-accused that she used to send the ladies housed in the protection home, outside for the purpose of providing sexual favours to influential people. The FIR in the instant case came to be based on the intervention of the high court which took cognisance of a newspaper report narrating the ordeals faced by the females kept in the protection home. The investigation was also monitored by the high court.”
The bench also pointed out that releasing the accused on bail could hamper the ongoing trial, as it might lead to threats to the witnesses and survivors.
The judges said,
“It is trite that bail once granted should not be cancelled ordinarily, but where the facts are so grave that they shake the conscience of the court, and where the release of the accused on bail would have an adverse impact on the society, the courts are not powerless and are expected to exercise jurisdiction conferred by law to cancel such bail orders so as to subserve the ends of justice.”
They further stated that,
“In top court’s opinion the present one was ‘precisely a case of such nature’.”
The court also emphasized that under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, it is mandatory for the survivor to be made a party to the bail hearing. Since this was not done in the high court proceedings, that itself could be a ground to cancel the bail.
Calling the case “exceptional,” the Supreme Court criticized the Patna High Court’s decision to grant bail in a very short and unclear order.
The apex court finally directed the accused to surrender before the trial court within four weeks. It also ordered the Patna district administration to ensure the survivor is provided proper protection and support.
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