Pune bus rape: Court rejects request for restraining order on few public, social media statements

A court in Pune on Thursday rejected an application seeking a restraining order against the public and social media statements that could lead to the character assassination of the Swargate bus rape survivor.

A court in Pune on Thursday rejected an application seeking a restraining order against the public and social media statements that "could lead to the character assassination" of the Swargate bus rape survivor. A lawyer had moved the application claiming that a fake narrative was being run to malign the woman who was allegedly raped by a history-sheeter inside a state transport bus at the busy bus station in the city last month.

The lawyer, Asim Sarode, urged the court to restrain public and social media statements that "could lead to the woman's character assassination".

Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Judge T S Gaigole rejected the application, noting that the court was not the appropriate authority to issue such an order. The judge said as per section 163 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), a district magistrate or a sub-divisional magistrate or any other executive magistrate, specially empowered by the state government, can issue an order in "urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger".

"This court is not the said authority having been empowered under section 163 of BNSS to issue order in urgent cases of nuisance and therefore, this application is not maintainable," the judge said.

Later, Sarode said since the district collector has the authority to issue such a restraining order, an application has been submitted to Pune Collector Jitendra Dudi.

A 26-year-old woman working in the health sector was allegedly raped by Dattatray Gade (37), who faces half a dozen cases, inside a stationary state transport bus at Swargate depot in the early hours of February 25.

After a massive hunt involving drones, sniffer dogs and several policemen, Gade was tracked down to an agriculture field near his native Gunat village under Shirur tehsil of Pune district on February 28. A court subsequently remanded in police custody till March 12.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)