Haryana Minister Sandeep Singh appeared in front of a Chandigarh Court on Thursday regarding his plea for anticipatory bail. Singh’s counsel filed for anticipatory bail in a sexual harassment case on 4 September. Lawyers for both sides—Singh and the complainant—were present in court on Thursday to present their respective arguments. At the same time, the minister’s lawyers also made a case for Singh to receive anticipatory bail in the case. Notably, Singh is a former captain of the national hockey team. Last December, the complainant—a junior women’s coach—accused Singh of harassing her. The Minister had given up his portfolio a day after he was booked by Chandigarh police.
During the arguments, lawyers for the junior women’s coach, Sameer Sethi and Dipanshu Bansal, responded to the bail plea and opposed it on merits. Advocate Dipanshu Bansal later said that the court had reserved its decision on the bail application filed by the accused. The complainant’s side also filed an application seeking a copy of the plea in order to oppose it. The women’s coach alleged that the Minister had been “threatening and influencing” her during the investigation.
Further, Chandigarh Police’s SIT has filed a reply in the court on the anticipatory bail plea. The Special Investigation Team has said that there is “no basis” for granting bail to Sandeep Singh, hence the bail petition should be rejected. Regarding this, the lawyers of the coach side also protested in the court regarding the bail of Sandeep Singh. During the hearing, the lawyer of the female coach said that the copy of the anticipatory bail petition filed by the accused was not made available to the complainant, regarding which an application was filed before the court on his behalf. In reply to this, the court has ordered Singh’s counsel to give a copy of the bail petition to the complainant.
After the charge sheet filed by the police in the case, the court ordered the accused Sandeep Singh to be present during the hearing in the case on 16 September, Saturday. The SIT of Chandigarh Police has presented the challan in the CJM court. Chandigarh Police has made Sandeep Singh an accused in the case under sections 342, 354, 354A, 354B, 506 and 509 of the IPC. The police had filed the charge sheet in the case registered on August 25 after eight months. In this matter, a notice was also sent by the court to Minister Sandeep Singh. Earlier, on 26 December 2022, the coach had filed a complaint against Sandeep Singh with the Chandigarh Police on charges including sexual harassment. On 31 December, local police registered a case against Sandeep Singh at the Sector 26 police station.
