Naliya Rape Case: 2 Years After Incident, Complainant Turns ‘Hostile’

On January 23, a 24-year-old woman from Mumbai filed a complaint at the Naliya police station in Abdasa taluka, Kutch district in Gujarat. She had alleged gangrape by 10 men and subsequently, details about a sex scandal had led to the arrest of nine men who were named in the FIR. Four of them were local BJP leaders of Kutch – Shantilal Solanki, convenor of Other Backward Classes Cell and President of Baxi Panch, Abdasa taluka, Govind Parulmani, secretary of BJP’s Gandhidham unit and Ajit Ramvani and Vasant Bhanushali, both of them BJP councillors in Gandhidham.

The victim had also filed an affidavit in the High Court of Gujarat accusing the police of inaction after the FIR was registered. Two years later, a judicial commission led by retired Gujarat High Court Judge A L Dave, appointed to inquire into the case, concluded that it found no material to suggest that the alleged incident had occurred. Therefore, the commission said there is no question of inquiring into other aspects of the alleged gang rape.

In his report, Justice Dave recorded the absence of the victim before him as a witness and stated that she had turned hostile in front of the trial court, before concluding the case.

“The Commission has not material that point at any lapse on the part of the police or any other authority or person that contributed to the occurrence, when the occurrence itself is doubtful,” the commission held in its report.

As Justice Dave report was tabled in Assembly on July 26 this year, it was also revealed that the Gujarat State Commission for Women (GSCW) resisted the appearance of its Chairperson Leelaben Ankoliya as a witness before Justice Dave Commission.

“Ms Leelaben Ankoliya, Chairperson of State Commission for Women, was summoned as a witness by this Commission. In that context, a communication was received from the Member Secretary of the Women’s Commission stating that the Chairperson enjoys the status of a state minister and is a constitutional functionary. As per Section 14(b) of Gujarat State Commission for Women Act 2002, the Women’s Commission is required to tender its report to the state government and therefore the Women’s Commission is required to send its report to the state government only,” the Justice Dave report held.

Leelaben Ankoliya had met the victim within 15 days of the registration of the FIR in 2017. After her visit to Kutch where she met the victim and others, Ankoliya had submitted a confidential report to the state government.

Citing the letter of the GSCW secretary, the Dave Commission recorded that the letter states that the GSCW had not many inquiries into the matter, but only spot visit was made and that a meeting with the victim and her family members in respect of which a report was submitted to state government. The letter also requested the Dave Commission to reconsider the summoning of Leelaben Ankoliya.

The request was challenged by Advocate Rahul Sharma representing Forum of Concerned Citizens for Naliya Incident. The Dave Commission then rejected the request and ordered Ankoliya to appear before it on September 19, 2018.

In her statement before the Commission, Ankoliya stated that she went to Kutch on February 10 and 11, 2017 and met the woman and her parents and that the meeting lasted for about 10 minutes.

“However, our request for making Ankoliya’s report public was rejected by the Dave Commission. The report still remains confidential,” Rahul Sharma stated.

Notably, in 2017, the victim had stated in the affidavit filed in Gujarat High Court that 35-40 women in and around Kutch were pulled into a sex racket under the ruse of employment in which about 65 people were involved.

She had also stated that an identity card was issued to her by the BJP Kutch unit on behalf of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Prashikshan Mahabhiyan, a BJP body that issues the cards for training sessions and workshops.

The card described the victim as a “social lady”. The card and the designation allowed women into hotels, farm houses and high-profile parties without questioning, as per the statement of the victim.

“It seems like a lost case now as the victim has turned hostile,” Rahul Sharma, former IPS officer-turned-advocate who represented Forum of Concerned Citizens of Naliya Incident, told NewsClick.

Days after the case of gang rape was registered, a man from Abdasa taluka, who claimed to be the former husband of the victim, filed two complaints against her in Naliya Court accusing her of cheating, extortion and criminal intimidation. The court had ordered two FIRs against the woman.

A few months later, the woman filed an affidavit in the Gujarat High Court stating that BJP Councillor Vasant Bhanushali had not raped her. Subsequently, Congress party stalled proceedings of the Assembly over the issue that led the state government to order a judicial inquiry into the matter.

Thereafter, the SIT formed to investigate the matter wanted to subject the accused to lie detector tests and brain electrical oscillation signature profiling, but were denied permission by local court in Naliya after the accused refused to consent for the tests.

Eventually, the victim turned hostile in July this year while deposing in the Bhuj Sessions court that led that Gujarat High Court to grant bail to three of the eight accused. The remaining five were released on bail by the Bhuj court.

“The victim was under constant threat. Days after she came out accusing the politically powerful men of the ruling party of the state, the Kutch BJP president, in a press conference, revealed her name. No action was taken against him. Later, she was slapped with two FIRs. Kutch Mitra, one of the widely read newspapers of Kutch, published about 10 or 12 advertorials on behalf of an organisation named Kutch Ladayat Samiti that indulged in character assassination of the victim and claimed that the whole incident was false. Even though she was not named in the advertorials, it was a known fact who it was referring to. It is needless to say that the victim had to turn hostile under the hostile circumstances,” said Meenakshi Joshi, a Gujarat-based activist who was part of the Forum of Concerned Citizens for Naliya incident.