Do you remember the incident that took over national news following a viral Facebook post? In August 2015, Jasleen Kaur, then a student at St Stephen’s College in Delhi University, took to Facebook and posted a picture of Saravjeet Singh, a 28-year-old Delhi resident, saying that he verbally abused and harassed her. This happened on the streets of Tilak Nagar in West Delhi and taking cognisance of the post, the Delhi Police registered a case against him.
According to a report in The Print, the arguments in the case couldn’t begin even after three years because Jasleen did not attend a single hearing in the matter. She made one in December 2018 and defended her absence in the past 14 hearings.
Now, Saravjeet Singh has reportedly been acquitted of all charges. Justice M.M. Sonam Gupta pronounced the judgment and it says that “testimony of the complainant is not trustworthy and casts doubt on the case of the prosecution”. The benefit of the doubt has been given to the accused as the prosecution has failed to prove its case.
A happy Saravjeet said, “I am feeling free today. Justice has been done and the tag of a criminal that I had been walking around with has been lifted. The judge had asked my lawyers if there were any witnesses to be produced. When my lawyers said that the witnesses could be called in the next hearing, the judge replied saying there was no need as the court had decided to free me. My lawyer and I looked at each other in disbelief and then I just broke into tears.”
After the post had gone viral, a media trial had taken place. Talking about the humiliation he faced, Saravjeet said, “They called me a national pervert, Delhi ka darinda (Delhi’s demon) and what not. That was not the employee’s fault but an editorial call.”
Arnab Goswami was the editor-in-chief of Times Now at the time, the news channel that had defamed him. He further added, “Mr. Arnab should apologise. He called me a pervert in front of the world but now the court has acquitted me. He crushed my image, so he should now restore it.”
He also wrote on Facebook saying, “Agar duniya aap news channels ko dekhti hai to wo us news par belive kar lete hai…it is a req ki pehle sach pata kare..fir duniya ko dikhaye.. sirf TRP he sab kuch nahi hoti. (The audience believes what news channels show. So, the channels should verify facts before putting out a story; TRP is not everything).”
Jasleen has been in Canada all this while and working in a Human Resources company there. She had earlier said that she wants to live in peace and didn’t want to “stretch this.” She said, “He had an advantage over me since he was here and I was in Canada caught up in my studies.”
We’re sure that justice has been served and hope Singh gets a chance to start a new chapter now.
Also Read: MeToo Movement India – Everything You Need To Know About The #MeToo Movement
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