New Delhi: A district court in Mohali on Thursday rejected the bail application of the man who is accused of receiving sexually explicit videos of female students of Chandigarh University, saying he does not deserve the concession of regular bail.
The university was the site of angry protests in mid-September, when it emerged that a female student had surreptitiously taken explicit videos of herself and of her fellow hostellers while they were bathing, forwarding these videos to her male friends. The police arrested three persons – the accused woman, her boyfriend and another man – in the case. The two men were arrested from Himachal Pradesh.
According to Indian Express, the Mohali district court dismissed the bail application of Sanjiv Singh while observing, “The applicant-accused does not deserve the concession of regular bail and the instant application carries no weight in it and same is accordingly dismissed.” The Kharar court had on October 12 also rejected the application.
The additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) Avtar Singh Barda noted that as per the prosecution’s version, “the woman co-accused used to make obscene videos of girls in the washroom and used to send them to the applicant and other co-accused”.
He noted, according to Indian Express, “In this way, the bail applicant along with co-accused has committed the offence of publishing or transmitting of sexually explicit act or conduct in electronic form. In this way, there are serious allegations against the applicant.”
The judge added that the offences of which Singh is accused are heinous and dangerous to society. “Moreover, these days such incidents are on the rise wherein innocent people of society are being duped by uploading/transmitting the objectionable/pornographic photographs on Facebook, messenger etc,” the judge said.
Singh’s counsel argued that the applicant has not committed any offence and is innocent. According to IE, he submitted that the only allegation levelled against his client is that he received the videos forwarded by the accused woman.
“The defence counsel argued that only the pictures/video of the woman were received and the same have not been forwarded to any person. The counsel for applicant has prayed for allowing the bail application,” the report says.
The prosecution opposed the bail.
According to IE, dismissing the application, the court observed, “It is revealed that no doubt the name of applicant has not been mentioned in the FIR but during the investigation, on the disclosure statement of woman co-accused, his name has cropped up in the present case.”
There was some confusion if the accused woman took explicit videos of only herself or also of other students. While arresting the woman, the Punjab police accused the woman of making videos of others but later said that she had shared a video of only herself with her 23-year-old boyfriend. Later, the police said a clip of another student was found on the woman’s phone.
Featured image: File image: Students stage a protest after videos of several women students bathing were allegedly recorded by another student, at Chandigarh University in Mohali district, September 18, 2022. Photo: PTI
This article was first published on The Wire.