Air Force officer facing sexual harassment charges handed over to Air Force
An Indian Air Force officer was on Thursday handed over to the Indian Air Force for court martial following a local court’s direction on charges of sexually assaulting a female colleague.
The Additional Women’s Court in Coimbatore directed the police to hand over the sensitive case involving a flight lieutenant in the Air Force Administrative College to the Indian Air Force after it had filed a petition seeking his transfer citing jurisdiction.
Flight lieutenant, Amitesh Harmukh, was arrested by police on Sunday for allegedly sexually assaulting a female officer on the college campus on September 10, following a complaint from the victim, who contacted the department and said that Indian Air Force officials had sued her. But did not take action.
Even as Harmukh was in judicial custody, IAF officials moved the court seeking his custody for further investigation and court martial, saying that the local police had no time to investigate and There is no jurisdiction to arrest him, as this is a case of defence.
When the matter came up today, after hearing the arguments of both the sides, Judge Tilgeshwari directed the city police to hand over the case to the Indian Air Force for court martial of the accused officer.
The police who brought Harmukh handed him over to the Indian Air Force officers, who took him into their custody.
Earlier, the 28-year-old woman Air Force officer made serious allegations against IAF officers, including subjecting them to a restricted finger test and forcing them to withdraw the complaint against the accused flight lieutenant.
The allegations were found in an FIR lodged by the police on the basis of a complaint by a woman officer at the All Women Police Station after Indian Air Force officials, including the college commandant, failed to act by September 20 on the incident on September 10.
The woman alleged that she was subjected to a ‘two-finger test’ at the Air Force Hospital to detect rape, which was banned by the Supreme Court a few years back.
The rape victim and the accused, both hailing from Chhattisgarh, were part of a training course and had attended a party at the officers’ mess on the night of September 9.
According to the complaint, the incident happened in the early hours of the next day when she was sleeping after taking medicine for her leg injury and was assaulted by a drunk officer, who told about the incident to two of his batchmates, who interacted. recorded to. between the three.
She contacted a Wing Commander regarding the incident and another woman came into the room with the Wing Commander, who advised her to think about the future including the reputation of the family, after which she told a friend that she had no complaints. Wasn’t going to do it.
However, when both the Wing Commanders again approached him and asked him to either file a complaint or give in writing that the episode was consensual, he later gathered courage and went on to file a suit, amid finger tests in the evening at the hospital. decided to.
The FIR states that the victim further stated that she had handed over the mattress which had traces of semen to two female doctors.
Police said that after two senior officers reported the test to be negative, the commandant asked him to withdraw the case in writing, if pursued, it would be shown in the media and defamed the Air Force and himself. Will go
However, she went to the city police commissioner’s office on September 20 and from there a case was registered at the Mahila Thana.
When contacted, a senior IAF official on condition of anonymity declined to comment on the issue as the matter was more sensitive in court.
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