NEW DELHI: A city court has issued a non-bailable warrant against a former SriLankan Airlines regional manager, convicted for insulting the modesty of one of his Indian female staff members when he was stationed in Delhi.
Metropolitan Magistrate Dev Saroha directed the investigating officer to take all necessary steps to ensure the presence of the convict before the court on November 15.
The former employee was convicted on September 16, 2020 under Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of IPC. The court had asked him to physically appear before it to pass the order on sentence.
Counsel for the convict had stated that he be allowed more exemption on the ground of travel restrictions due to Covid and his medical condition.
The court noted that he had produced medical documents stating that the convict has been advised not to travel through air at least for next six months. It further noted that the investigating officer has filed a report stating that the passenger flights are being operated between Sri Lanka and India according to Bubble Agreement and any person having valid travel authorisation/documents may travel to India through these flights.
“Details of flights operated/proposed to be operated by each airline in the months of September and October 2021 are also filed along with the report. Thus, argument of the counsel for convict that there are no flights between India and Sri Lanka cannot be accepted,” it said in the order.
The court further said that despite repeated adjournments since the conviction in 2020, done through videoconferencing due to Covid-19, his counsel has not filed even a single document to prove that the convict has even once tried to get the visa. “This misleading interpretation of the provisions of Bubble Agreement between India and Sri Lanka and no attempt by the convict to apply for Visa shows the intention of convict to not to appear before this court,” it added.
