Swati Maliwal assault case: Delhi court grants bail to attacker Harish Chander

A local court in Delhi has granted bail to a person, who was accused of dragging Delhi Commission for Woman (DCW) Chairperson Swati Maliwal by a car outside the All India Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on January 19, after her hand got stuck in the vehicle’s window.

Metropolitan Magistrate (Mahila Court) Sanghmitra of Saket Court granted bail to Harish Chander on Saturday on a bail bond of Rs 50,000 with one surety of like amount after observing that though the nature of accusations was serious, keeping the accused behind the bars would not serve any useful purpose.

As per the Metropolitan Magistrate, all the offences of which the accused was charged with, barring one, were bailable in nature and the punishment for the same was less than seven years.

It also asked the IO regarding the requirement for custodial interrogation of the accused for investigation. After the IO replied in negative, the Saket court granted bail to Chander.

The court took in view the fact that the accused had no previous involvement in any other offence. It ruled that any apprehensions regarding the accused attempting to threaten the witnesses or tampering with the evidence were at this stage ipso dixit (unproven).   

Appearing for Harish, Advocate S.K. Dhaka claimed that a video had surfaced showing Maliwal with a cameraman approaching the accused, which was, in reality, a ‘staged act’ performed by the complainant to ‘show her power’.

The bail application was opposed by Additional Public Prosecutor Dishank Dhawan, contending that the accused was repeatedly making lewd gestures.

He said that if an accused committing such an act with the DCW chief was granted bail, it would send a wrong message to the society. 

The APP urged the court to look at the impact of the order on the society before granting bail to the accused. He added that the MLC of the accused showed that he was drunk.

(Case title: State vs Harish Chander)