Coming to the rescue of a Naval officer’s wife who accused her husband and other officials at Southern Naval Command of indulging in “wife swapping”, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the investigation against her by the Naval Board of Inquiry and issued notice on her petition demanding investigation by CBI.
The victim, Sujata Kiran, complained of being harassed and tortured by the Navy and the Kerala Police as she would be regularly called to join the ongoing inquiry. Her counsel Kamini Jaiswal said, “Under the garb of inquiry she is being threatened. She is a victim then why is she asked to go there (to Kochi). It is frightening her day in and day out.”
Since the victim is pursuing her Civil Services Examination and is currently lodged in a University Hostel in Delhi, the bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam ordered stay on the investigation by the Kerala Police into her complaint as also the Board of Inquiry proceedings set up on April 16 this year at Kochi.
The Court permitted the petitioner to make Central Government a party to her petition as it issued notice to the Kerala Government, Commander of Southern Naval Command, victim’s husband and six other officers. The petition alleged that the victim, after she got married to lt
Ravi Kiran Kabdulla on March 9, 2012 accompanied him to Kochi early this year. She was compelled to take part in “wife swapping” parties, invitation cards of which she annexed with the petition. On her refusal, she was tortured mentally and physically. On January 9, 2013, the petitioner caught her husband in a compromising position with the wife of a superior Naval officer and despite her complaint efforts were made to declare her insane and rubbish her complaint.
later, on many occasions, the victim was “physically and sexually assaulted” by the friends, colleagues and superiors of her husband in his presence. A complaint was finally lodged with the local police by the victim at the Harbour Police station at Kochi with the help of a friend in which she named her husband, his family members, and five officers of Kochi Naval Command.