Woman moves Supreme Court alleging Rape by Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister

A woman from Arunachal Pradesh has approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to approach the Delhi High Court in a petition involving allegations of gang rape by four, including Pema Khandu, the present Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh..She has knocked the doors of the Supreme Court after the Police and the Chief Judicial Magistrate declined to entertain pleas to register a criminal complaint against the alleged perpetrators. .The petition drawn by advocates Vishnu Shankar and Sarath S Janardanan was filed by advocate Sriram Parakkat..At the time of the alleged incident, the petitioner states that she was 15 years old. As recounted in her petition, she was working in a Public Call Office in Arunachal Pradesh at the time. A man named Phurma Lama is alleged to have lured her into a meeting under the pretext of helping her get a government job..The petition states that she met three others during this meeting, including Pema Khandu who introduced himself as an Army colonel. The two other persons named in the petition are Thupten Tashi, a teacher at a Government school and Dorjee Wangchu, an Assistant Mineral Development Officer at Ziro..The petitioner has submitted that she was given soft drinks laced with drugs during the meeting. While she was unconscious, the four men are alleged to have raped her. Further, she has also alleged that after she regained consciousness, she was slapped by Lama and threatened not to disclose the rape to anyone. Owing to the threat, the petitioner submits that she was unable to immediately register a formal complaint..All the while, the petitioner submits that she was not aware of the real identities of the alleged offenders, even if she had understood that they were powerful people. It was only in 2012, after seeing his photographs in the newspaper, that she came to identify Pema Khandu as the (then) Tourism Minister for Arunachal Pradesh..Whereas the petitioner attempted to lodge a formal complaint in 2015, the Itanagar Police officers were reluctant to register the same. A complaint against this inaction of the Itanagar police was also made by the petitioner to no avail. .When the police failed to act, the petitioner approached the Chief Judicial Magistrate. However, her plea was dismissed by the Magistrate in 2016 citing lack of jurisdiction. Representations made to the National Commission for Women and Government functionaries also failed to yield any response..Therefore, she has now approached the Supreme Court, seeking permission to pursue her case before the Delhi High Court, apprehending danger to her life and difficulty in pursuing a legal remedy anywhere in North East India. The petitioner has also prayed that she be provided protection on the Court’s direction. Additionally, she has also submitted that she is willing to subject herself to Narco Analysis / Polygraph tests to support the veracity of her allegations. .Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, Click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.