Mumbai: Observing that the police had filed the closure report without properly examining the sexual harassment allegations made by the principal against a trustee of a city-based school and junior college, a magistrate’s court has dismissed the B Summary Report and directed the investigating officer to conduct a fresh probe.B Summary Report is a final closure report filed by police before a magistrate when they find a complaint to be maliciously false or lacking prima facie evidence.D S Sharma, 52nd Kurla Metropolitan Magistrate, passed the order on July 7.In her complaint, the principal had accused the trustee of subjecting her to physical, mental, and sexual harassment. The alleged harassment began a few months after she joined the institute in September 2017. She alleged that the trustee inappropriately touched her in his office, repeatedly sent her objectionable messages, sought sexual favours, and, on one occasion, allegedly took her to his residence instead of dropping her home and behaved inappropriately.After investigation, RCF police submitted a B Summary Report, stating that the complaint was “false and bogus”. The complainant opposed the closure report, arguing that the probe was incomplete and that the investigating officer had improperly relied on the accused’s defence. Her counsel, Devendra Shukla, also contended that the inquiry conducted against her by the school administration itself was illegal as it had not received the mandatory approval of the education department, and therefore could not be relied upon to discredit her allegations.The magistrate noted that documents on record indicated that the education department had neither granted permission for a probe nor constituted any inquiry committee against the complainant. It further held that a departmental inquiry in a service dispute was civil in nature and had no bearing on the criminal investigation.The court also reiterated the settled legal position that in cases involving sexual offences against women, a conviction can be based solely on the testimony of the victim, and therefore the investigating officer was required to record strong reasons before concluding that the complaint was false.
