New Delhi: A Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Thursday arrested senior IAS officer and former chief secretary of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Jitendra Narain for allegedly gang-raping a 21-year-old woman along with other accused, news agency PTI reported.
The SIT arrested the senior bureaucrat after a court rejected his anticipatory bail petition earlier in the day.
As per the PTI report, seeking anticipatory bail for Narain, his counsel Deep Kabir submitted that the former chief secretary has been cooperating with the ongoing probe and that he should be granted the relief.
According to the victim’s lawyer Phatick Chandra Das, the District and Sessions Judge Subhashis Kumar Kar wondered on what ground Narain should be granted the anticipatory bail as the pre-arrest bail plea of two other accused in the case were rejected earlier.
The other two accused are Labour Commissioner RL Rishi and businessman Sandeep Singh alias Rinku. Rishi was accused of raping the woman while Singh’s name was mentioned in the FIR as an accomplice in the crime.
As Narain was the chief secretary of the islands for a considerable period and “his power and position cannot be equated with a man of common strata,” the judge said, “... the need of custodial interrogation of the present petitioner cannot be ruled out for the interest of the proper and impartial investigation.”
It is to be noted that the SIT was constituted to probe the allegations that a 21-year-old woman in Andaman and Nicobar Islands was lured to the chief secretary’s home by promising a government job, and then raped by top officials, including Narain.
An FIR was registered on October 1 when Narain was posted as the chief and managing director of the Delhi Financial Corporation. The government suspended him on October 17 with immediate effect.
The Andaman and Nicobar Police on November 2 announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh each for information leading to the arrest of Rishi and Singh. Both are absconding.