Team Herald
PANJIM: Senior journalist Rupesh Samant, charged with sexual harassment, surrendered before the chief judicial magistrate on Sunday morning, ending his 37 days in hiding. His surrender before CJM Ashley Noronha, a little after 11 am, was after avoiding nearly eight summons issued to him by the women police station.
Samant’s lawyer Raju Poulekar told Herald that his surrender under Section 44 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was in respect to all the four FIRs registered against him. “The CJM accepted the surrender application after which he was arrested. He has been remanded to one-day police custody,” the lawyer said.
The journalist simultaneously filed a plea for regular bail under Section 437 of the CrPC that will come up for hearing around noon on Tuesday. Samant also deposited his mobile phone to CJM.
Crime Branch SP Kartik Kashyap confirmed the news stating the police would move the local court for his custody on Monday.
The women police station had registered two FIRs on September 24 based on complaints from women journalists of sexual harassment. Subsequently, two more cases were registered against him for similar offence.
The investigation officer has recorded more than two dozen statements of witnesses in the case.
Senior counsel Shirish Gupte had said his client was always willing to depose when the first FIR was lodged. He had said Samant had soon written to the police that he was ready to cooperate with the investigation. “But in the absence of an interim order, he had to rush to the Sessions Court for anticipatory bail,” the Mumbai-based lawyer had said. The Sessions Court and later High Court of Bombay at Goa had rejected his anticipatory bail application last month.
