The Delhi Police have reinstated the jobs of the husband and brother-in-law of the woman who had accused Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment, The Indian Express reported on Thursday. They were brought back as head constables.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Delhi Armed Police) CK Mein confirmed to the daily that the suspension order had been revoked. “Both of them have been reinstated last week but the departmental inquiry against them is still pending,” he said. Mein, however, did not comment on why the suspension order was revoked.
The woman’s brother-in-law also confirmed the development. “We were reinstated a few days ago and now we hope they will also close our departmental inquiry as we are innocent...” the brother-in-law said. “My brother is currently in Mumbai with his wife for her ear treatment.”
The woman’s husband said he was not aware of the development as he is on leave.
On April 19, the woman had sent a complaint to 22 judges of the Supreme Court and called for an inquiry into the actions of Gogoi, who she said not only harassed her but was also responsible for her subsequent victimisation. The woman, who earlier worked as a junior court assistant at the Supreme Court, alleged in the affidavit that Gogoi made sexual advances on her at his residence office on October 10 and October 11, 2018.
The woman had said that after she rebuffed the Chief Justice of India, she was moved out of his residence office, where she had been posted in August 2018, and later on December 21, dismissed from service. She claimed her husband and brother-in-law were suspended from the Delhi Police on December 28, 2018, for a criminal case involving a colony dispute dating back to 2012 that had been mutually resolved.
Gogoi denied the allegations during a special hearing on April 20. The chief justice said he did not “deem it appropriate” to reply to the allegations but claimed they were part of a “bigger plot”, possibly one to “deactivate the office of the CJI”.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma had told The Indian Express in April that there was no link between the departmental inquiry against the two men and the woman’s complaint.
An unidentified Crime Branch officer had told the daily that the woman’s husband faced a departmental inquiry for allegedly calling the Chief Justice’s office, while his brother faced an inquiry allegedly concealing a 2015 police complaint against him over “unruly behaviour”.
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