A Delhi court on Thursday directed the city police to give seven working days’ prior notice to Congress MP and dismissed Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Angomcha Bimol Akoijam before taking any coercive action against him in a sexual harassment case.
Disposing of Akoijam’s anticipatory bail plea, Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh said the notice would be mandatory if the dismissed professor needs to be arrested.
In its order, the court said, “The crux of the matter is that against the applicant (Akoijam) there are allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate professional conduct.”
The court noted that Delhi Police had submitted that it was not presently contemplating Akoijam’s arrest, given the nature of the allegations and the stage of the investigation. However, if any material change during the probe necessitated his arrest, the investigating agency would serve a seven-day written notice on him. It said the offences invoked in the case carried a maximum punishment of three years’ imprisonment.
“Some of the offences are non-bailable, and during the hearing, it is stated by the investigating officer (IO) that by now no victim could be examined since the particulars of the victims have not yet been supplied by the JNU authorities and the investigating agency is in the process of obtaining the same,” the court said. It also noted that Akoijam had clean antecedents and had joined the investigation immediately after being summoned by the city police.
“In this view of the matter, it is ordered that the present application stands disposed of with a direction to the investigating agency not to resort to any coercive process against the applicant in the present FIR without giving him a written notice as suggested by the investigating agency itself,” the court said.
On November 2, the Delhi High Court stayed the JNU administration’s decision to terminate the services of professor Akoijam, issuing notice to the university on the Congress MP’s petition challenging the dismissal order. This case has been listed for hearing in January.