In 2020, a 22-year-old woman was gangraped. In a cruel twist, she and the two people supporting her were arrested, charged under serious offences, and jailed. While the rape case remains pending – it took them five long years to clear their names from the fake cases.
On 10 April 2025, the Patna High Court formally quashed criminal proceedings against the two social workers who had been unjustly jailed in 2020 while supporting the survivor in Araria, Bihar. This followed the Supreme Court’s earlier order on 2 February 2024, which closed the case against the survivor, noting that a “sympathetic approach” was needed in such matters.
The arrests followed a disturbing turn in July 2020, when the survivor—unable to read—asked for clarification before signing her 164 CrPC statement that contained her account of the gang rape before a Magistrate. She and her support persons were booked under serious, non-bailable charges including criminal conspiracy, contempt of court, and assaulting a public servant. The survivor spent 8 days in jail during the peak of the pandemic; the two social workers were incarcerated for nearly a month before the Supreme Court granted them bail.
For nearly five years, PART III Action Research and Resource Centre supported the legal efforts to defend their rights and dignity. Our legal team represented them through this prolonged litigation, securing their eventual exoneration from the Supreme Court (for the survivor in 2024) and the Patna High Court (for the support persons in 2025).
We are deeply grateful to the lawyers who stood by them: Senior Advocate R. Basant, and Advocates A. Karthik, Siddharth Satija, Gopal Rai, Rajani Kant Mishra, and Parijata Bhardwaj.
While the gangrape trial is still pending, this legal victory is a testament to the power of solidarity and perseverance. At PART III, we remain clear in our conviction: supporting survivors should never be a crime.
