With the victim of alleged sexual molestation case in the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association recording her statement before the district court here on Thursday, all escape routes of the MPCA joint secretary Alpesh Shah, the main accused in the sexual molestation case, appear to have been sealed with his probable arrest becoming imminent.
The ongoing probe into the sexual molestation case by Indore police had not been able to pick up its desired pace for lack of documental and circumstantial evidences against the accused. In order to expedite its probe into the case, the city police had submitted a plea before the district court seeking recording of the statement of the victim before the court under Section 164 CrPC.
Though the victim was supposed to record her statement before the court on Monday, on account of her ill health, the matter was deferred till Thursday with Tukoganj police informing the district court that the victim was ready to record her statement before the court on Thursday.
Accordingly the victim, an under-19 cricketer of the MPCA, accompanied by her father arrived at the district on Thursday morning where she recorded her statement in connection with the case under section 164 of CrPC before the court of Judge Savita Singh in a closed chamber.
later talking to the mediapersons, the victim hoping to get the due justice from the court, said that badly shaken by the unfortunate incident, she had to quit cricket. The victim further said that she had high hopes from the MPCA president Jyotiraditya Scindia to get a proper justice in the matter. On the other hand, the victim’s father while talking to the mediapersons alleged that the MPCA officials and its president Jyotiraditya Scindia were dilly-dallying the matter. Despite my repeated mails, Scindia has not responded to my mail and under the circumstances we are constrained to take recourse to some other legal options to get justice, the victim’s father told media persons.
The alleged sexual molestation case of an under-19 female cricketer had rocked the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association about a week back after the victim lodged an FIR against former MPCA joint secretary Alpesh Shah, accusing him of trying to molest her in the office of MPCA on September 23 this year.
Tukoganj police station while continuing with its probe into the matter, though had recorded statements of two key witnesses of MPCA including its chairman MK Bhargava and secretary Narendra Menon on Monday, the recording of the statement by the victim under Section 164 of CrPC before the district court had been deferred till December 5 as she was medically unwell on Monday.”
In the meantime, Alpesh Shah in order to evade his probable arrest, had moved a petition in the Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh high court (MPHC) through his counsel Ajay Bagadia on Monday terming allegations against him as baseless and devoid of facts. Hearing the petition, justice NK Mody on Wednesday stayed Shah’s arrest on the plea that the police did not have sufficient ground for his arrest unless and until statement of the victim is recorded.
However, with the victim recording her statement before the court on Thursday, city police may tighten its noose against Shah. Talking to this correspondent, Tukoganj TI Manoj Ratnakar, said that recording of statement by the victim before the district court under the given section, though help them to further intensify their probe into the matter, he remained non-committal about the possible arrest of Shah stating that any action against him would be taken only after going the High Court order and merits of other evidence against him.
Meanwhile, five-member probe panel of the MPCA held its meeting to discuss issues related to the molestation case in the MPCA office on Thursday. In the meeting, the panel members, decided to send separate letters to the alleged victim of the molestation case as well as the accused and former MPCA joint secretary Alpesh Shah asking them to submit their replies in connection with the case by December 7 when second meeting of the probe panel is scheduled.