Probe against sacked Delhi minister Sandeep Kumar for other cases of alleged sexual assault

Delhi Police told the court in its plea seeking custody of Kumar that he "has disclosed that he has committed sexual assault with the woman and recorded this act as well".
Probe against sacked Delhi minister Sandeep Kumar for other cases of alleged sexual assault
Probe against sacked Delhi minister Sandeep Kumar for other cases of alleged sexual assault
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By Amiya Kumar Kushwaha

Delhi Police is probing other cases of alleged "sexual assault" against sacked Delhi minister Sandeep Kumar after he disclosed that he has been involved in such acts with "many other women" in the past and also recorded them.

Kumar was arrested following a complaint by a woman who figured in a "sex video" clip with him.

Kumar was presented in Tis Hazari courts complex on Monday before Special Judge Poonam Chaudhary who remanded him to three-day police custody during in-camera proceedings.

Delhi Police told the court in its plea seeking custody of Kumar that he "has disclosed that he has committed sexual assault with the woman and recorded this act as well".

"He (Kumar) has disclosed that he has done such similar acts with many other girls, which needs further investigation," Delhi Police stated in the application seeking four-day police custody of Kumar.

Delhi Police informed the court that the woman complainant approached Kumar around 8-10 months back for providing her a ration card, whereupon the minister asked her to visit him at his office-cum-residence in Sultanpuri.

Kumar told her that he will provide her a ration card and job to her sons and offered her a cold drink, after drinking which the woman felt dizzy, the police said.

Taking advantage of the woman's drowsiness Kumar committed "sexual assault" on her, Delhi Police said.

The police told the court that co-accused Parveen, who is Kumar's childhood friend, has been detained and the two men would be brought face-to-face to unearth the "hidden facts".

Kumar was not cooperating in the investigations and did not tell the Delhi Police the exact address of his friend Parveen in Bahadurgarh.

Delhi Police sought four-day custodial remand of Kumar on the ground that it has to conduct sustained interrogation to find out various other facts about the women whose clips and pictures were telecast by news channels, to recover the case properties, to arrest other co-accused and find out the places of incident.

The proceeding, which was to take place before a magistrate court in Rohini courts, was changed to Tis Hazari after Delhi Police booked Kumar under section 7 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) of Prevention of Corruption Act, which can be tried by a special court dealing with corruption cases.

Kumar was produced before a duty magistrate in Rohini court on Sunday, which sent him to one-day police custody.

Delhi Police said that during the police custody remand, it has been able to recover mobile phones and hard disk of Kumar.

The former Social Welfare and Women and Child Development Minister was arrested on Saturday after the woman approached Sultanpuri police station in north Delhi with a complaint of sexual harassment against him.

A case was filed and Kumar booked under Sections 376 (punishment for rape) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison, with intent to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

He was also charged under the Information Technology Act's section 67A (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form).

The woman in her complaint alleged that she was sexually harassed by Kumar at his office-cum-residence in Sultanpuri area where she had gone to get her ration card made.

A Delhi Police team on Sunday visited the house where the woman was allegedly raped.

Kumar was sacked on Wednesday after the alleged "sex video" involving him went viral. On Thursday, Kumar defended himself, saying he had resigned on his own and alleged that he was being targeted for being a Dalit.

(Amiya Kumar Kushwaha can be reached at amiya.k@ians.in)

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