All 10 youths who allegedly harassed a 32-year-old woman in a Metro Railway coach all through the ride from Esplanade to Tollygunge were granted bail on Wednesday.
Lawyers representing police in the Alipore court did not oppose the bail plea.
The 10 accused — aged between 18 and 24 — have been booked under the IPC sections 354 (assault or use of criminal force to a women with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment of the nature of unwelcome physical contact), 354D (stalking), 509 (using any word or gesture with intent to outrage modesty of a woman) and 34 (common intention).
The offence under section 354 is considered non-bailable.
A lawyer not linked to the case said that since one of the sections was non-bailable, the police could have sought custody of the accused for the sake of the probe. Instead, the lawyers appearing for the police sought judicial custody.
One of the accused, Apurba Chakrabarty, has done his master’s in science.
Among the battery of lawyers defending the accused was an uncle of Apurba, who submitted that the group was returning home in a crowded Metro train after shopping and was falsely implicated by the woman.
The accused were all smiles when they stepped out of the court. The alleged crime the night before and their pleading for forgiveness at Tollygunge Metro station in the face of the woman’s resistance and fightback seemed a distant memory.
If convicted, they can be jailed for up to three years.
The defence lawyers wrapped up their submission within a minute. When the magistrate looked at public prosecutor Radhanath Rong, he sat silent.
Additional chief judicial magistrate Avijit Ghosh went through the case diary produced by the police, took a couple of minutes and started writing his order.
The magistrate granted bail to the accused till October 30 and ordered them to co-operate with the officer investigating the case.
The accused returned to Regent Park police station to collect their puja buys, which the police had seized after arresting them.
“They were scared thinking whether they would have to spend the festive days behind bars. The court order has brought smiles on their faces,” said Shankar Mukherjee, one of the defence lawyers.
“Whatever happened on the train was because of the crowd and it was not deliberate. The charges pressed against the accused are not applicable.”
Apurba’s uncle Swapan Mukherjee said his nephew had gone to Esplanade for puja shopping. “The group decided to get off the coach at Tollygunge to lodge a complaint with police after the woman allegedly slapped one of them,” he said.
Sources at Regent Park police station said they would summon the accused again for interrogation and record their statements.
The woman boarded the same coach as the 10 accused at Esplanade. She has mentioned in her complainant that the youths were nudging and falling over her in the compartment.
“Metro-te ja khushi hote pare…(anything can happen on Metro),” one of the accused apparently told the woman.
The woman got off at Tollygunge. The accused, though bound for Kavi Subhas, followed suit and allegedly continued to harass the woman.
She then raised an alarm, resulting in the arrest of the accused.
Under scanner
Apurba Chakrabarty, 24
Saurav Dutta, 19
Taushiq Jamal Sheikh, 26
Joy Shannigrahi, 18
Subhajit Shaw, 22
Tanmoy Ghosh, 23
Somenath Dutta, 20
Amit Biswas,18
Pritam Dutta, 22
Amit Shaw, 21
