Former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on Monday questioned the jurisdiction of the Delhi court trying a sexual harassment case lodged against him by six female wrestlers, claiming no alleged action or consequence happened in India.
Singh’s lawyer made the submission before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Harjeet Singh Jaspal during the argument on whether to frame charges against him.
“There is no action or consequence which has happened in India and therefore, the alleged offences which, as per the prosecution, have happened at Tokyo, Mongolia, Bulgaria, Jakarta, Kazakhistan, Turkey, etc., cannot be tried by this court,” advocate Rajiv Mohan, appearing for the Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj, told the court.
He argued that the court had no jurisdiction to try any offence which was allegedly committed outside India.
The prosecution, however, countered the argument, asserting that “the act of sexual harassment of the victims was a continuing offence, as it did not stop at any particular time”.
“The accused molested the victims whenever he got the opportunity and such harassment cannot be looked in isolated brackets and the series or the chain thereof needs to be seen as one,” public prosecutor Atul Kumar Srivastava said.
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After hearing both the sides, the judge granted three weeks to the counsel for the parties to file their written arguments so they could be concluded in a “systematic manner”.
The judge will further take up the matter on November 22.
The city police had filed a charge sheet in the case against Singh, a six-time MP, on June 15 under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354-D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
The police had also charged Vinod Tomar, the suspended assistant secretary of the WFI, in the case.
