The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and others on a plea alleging he pushed a pregnant journalist during an Opposition march to the court on October 12. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued the notices after senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia mentioned the application, filed in a pending petition, PTI reported.
The application alleged that Gandhi pushed the journalist towards a gate with such force that she lost her balance and fell, and had to break the fall with her hands. It said the push was delivered openly, in a crowded place, in the presence of security personnel, journalists and others, and was not a mere jostle of the crowd. The plea sought immediate registration of an FIR against Gandhi and all others allegedly involved, besides compensation for the journalist.
According to LiveLaw, the applicant, identified as Richa Parashar, has moved the Supreme Court seeking impleadment in a pending case on political demonstrations within court premises. She said she was 11 weeks and three days pregnant at the time. Her application said she developed pain in the lower abdomen after the fall and was taken to the casualty ward of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital around 9 pm, where she was discharged with medication and advised further scans and screening.
The applicant said she repeatedly pleaded "Sir, I am being pushed" and "Please don't push, sir", but her pleas were drowned out by Congress workers chanting "Rahul Gandhi Zindabad". She said that even after she was pushed, no one, including Gandhi, stopped to help her, and that she sat on a side pavement pleading for help for nearly 40 minutes, LiveLaw reported.
The applicant alleged that Congress and its leaders subsequently sought to discredit her account by calling it "political propaganda", which she described as a form of "secondary victimisation", according to LiveLaw.
The applicant said she had complained to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, seeking an FIR against Gandhi and others under Sections 74, 115(2), 125 and 131 read with Section 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, but that no FIR had been registered. Her plea also sought preservation of CCTV footage, access-control logs, entry passes and visitor records from October 12, compensation from the Union, Gandhi and Congress, an unconditional apology, and safety directions from the Delhi Police Commissioner, LiveLaw reported.
Bhatia had first raised the matter before the bench on October 16, telling the court the journalist was three months pregnant and had to be hospitalised after the incident. On October 12, Gandhi and several Opposition leaders, accompanied by supporters, had marched to the Supreme Court to file a plea alleging large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, amid protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The Supreme Court had earlier issued notices to Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, the Congress party and others on a separate plea against the October 12 march itself, PTI reported.
(With inputs from PTI)