A young Harvard educated Supreme Court lawyer Utsav Bains took to Facebook to drop a bombshell of an allegation that he was offered "bribe to help frame CJI in the sexual harassment complaint against him".
New Delhi: A former junior court assistant on Saturday accused Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment. The 35-year-old woman on April 19 sent a complaint to 22 judges of the apex court alleging that CJI Gogoi had sexually harassed her and then “victimized” her family and her.
Though, Gogoi defended himself by saying, “There is nothing more valuable than respect. The only thing I have earned in my life is respect. The allegation against me is baseless", now more evidence is tumbling out on why this case is more than what meets the eye.
A young Harvard educated Supreme Court lawyer Utsav Bains took to Facebook to drop a bombshell of an allegation that he was offered "bribe to help frame CJI in the sexual harassment complaint against him". A tweet of Bains with his detailed counter view expressed on Facebook has so far been retweeted more than 2000 time.
I was offered Bribe to Help frame CJI in the Sexual Harrasment complaint against him , Full Text - https://t.co/33GChlqxVO
— Utsav Bains (@utsavbains)Moreover, Bains also mentioned a man who approached him with a bribe of Rs 1.5 crore. However, he didn't divulge the identity of the said person.
Also Read: CJI Ranjan Gogoi rubbishes sexual harassment complaint by former staff member
Charge 1:
"I was offered bribe to help frame CJI in the sexual harassment case by lawyering and organising a press conference against the CJI for the Ex-Supreme Court staffer who has accused the CJI of sexual harassment just a few days back and also specifically asked to organise a press conference only at the Press Club of India", writes Bains.
Charge 2:
Bains added, "Interestingly claimed to be her relative but on the other hand looked like a trained agent and he also couldn’t satisfactorily reply as to what was his relationship with the Ex-SC Staffer and then suddenly offered me Rs 50 lakhs as my legal fees if I agreed to...". According to the allegations of Bains, he suspected that the man was possibly faking his or her relationship with the alleged victim.
Charge 3:
"... I found the story facts fishy and also he couldn’t reply to any question about the many loopholes in the story he narrated. On refusing his offer, he raised the amount to Rs 1.5 Cr. I then asked him to leave my office...", alleges the Supreme court lawyer. According to him the claims made by the victim were of the suspect and a higher legal fee was offered to him to make a media spectacle out of it. He adds, "I was convinced about a well-planned conspiracy after days of getting such credible information". He also added that he went to Gogoi's residence to contact him but failed to do so.
According to Bains, "The conspiracy against the CJI by a lobby of disgruntled judges, SC fixers, corporate scamsters and a few corrupt politicians - all who have meticulously planned the conspiracy to force the CJI to resign as their ‘Corrupt works were not going through in SC‘." Furthermore, he also offered his call record for investigation of the same.
"I moved to Delhi from Chandigarh as I refused to be institutionalised in judicial nepotism. My grandfather is a retired HC judge who appointed many HC judges and father a senior lawyer, many of his friends or my family friends are HC Judges at PB HRY HC - precisely the reason why I moved to become a lawyer in Delhi", he said. He has admitted to having worked with the likes of Prashant Bhushan and Kamini Jaiswal. As claimed by him, he comes from a family who are in the legal profession. He says, he has a problem with being "institutionalised in nepotism" and hence has spoken out.
As the victim calls for action against the Chief justice of India, this twist in the tale has raised a larger question of a possible 'conspiracy' to disallow Ranjan Gogoi from hearing key cases. Gogoi is slated to hear some crucial cases like Rahul Gandhi's defamation case, Kolkata’s ex-police chief Rajeev Kumar's alleged role in multi-crore Sarada chit fund scam, the sensitive PIL pertaining to National Registry of Citizens (NRC) and of course and the case of PM Modi’s biopic.
Also Read: Who does not want CJI Ranjan Gogoi to hear these 4 cases?
“This is an attempt to abridge the hitherto intact independence of the judiciary. Not just a woman is involved in this conspiracy, but some big forces are too. I have to hear some significant cases next week and this is an attempt to scuttle the hearing of those cases. But, I shall continue to do my duty without any bias and fear till my tenure,” the CJI said on Saturday.
With the CJI's position under the cloud and a parallel counter allegation of equal significance pinning the blame on not only the victim but an eco-system, this is surely not the last one has heard on this matter.
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