New Delhi, May 20: Australian cricketer Luke Pomersbach, accused of molesting an American woman, was on Saturday granted bail by a Delhi court.
The court found that he had not tresspassed into her room in the five star hotel where the alleged incident took place on the intervening night of May 17-18, after a post-match party.
The court also directed the 27-year-old batsman, playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, not to approach the complainant woman.
In a related development, complainant Zohal Hameed sent RCB director Sidhartha Mallya legal notice for casting aspersions on her character in his tweets.
After watching the CCTV footage provided by the police, Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha enlarged Pomersbach on bail and said that no offence under Section 452 of the IPC for “house-trespass or wrongful restraint” is made out against him.
The court granted him bail on a personal bond of Rs 30,000 along with two sureties of the like amount.
The magistrate directed the cricketer to surrender his passport before it and asked him not to leave the country without its prior permission.
“No material evidence for offence under section 452 of the IPC is made out against the accused. I am granting him bail on a personal bond of Rs 30,000 with two sureties,” the magistrate said.
During the arguments, police played the CCTV footage on a laptop inside the courtroom and also submitted the medical reports of Sahil, who is undergoing treatment in a private hospital here.
The alleged incident took place when Pomersbach had entered the room first accompanied by the woman, her fiance Sahil and one Miraj, the police said. In the second time, Pomersbach was holding a beer bottle in his left hand as his right hand was fractured during the alleged assault committed by him on the woman and Sahil.
The second time
During the second time, the police said Pomersbach and one of his friends forcefully entered the woman’s room but he was pushed back from inside.
The investigating officer said that the offence of 452 of the IPC (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) is also made out against Pomersbach as he had forcefully entered the room with intention to cause hurt.
Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Pomersbach, said the police should explain how the offence under section 452 of the IPC is made out against his client.
Pressing for bail, Gupta said that they are not denying the presence of Pomersbach there but the entry into the room was friendly.
He said Pomersbach should be granted bail and if there is any apprehension that he may flee from justice, he would surrender his passport.
“Bail should be granted. But as he is a foreigner so the investigating officer or this court may have the apprehension of his fleeing, so in that case, he will surrender his passport,” Gupta said.
Pomersbach’s counsel said his client had no intention of fleeing from justice. Gupta said the court should keep in mind that the alleged incident took place between 4 and 5 am and the persons involved in it were in an inebriated state.
He said that no ground for arresting Pomersbach had been mentioned in the records.
“Even if any case is made out, the court should not send him to jail. For what purpose he will be sent to jail. Only because the media is interested in this case he should not be sent to jail,” the lawyer said.
During the arguments, the public prosecutor said that Pomersbach was “pre-determined” to commit the offence as he returned to the woman’s room for the second time.
Hameed also filed a complaint with the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) against the Mallya scion.
DCW chairperson Barkha Singh said she had received the complaint. “We have received a complaint from Zohail Hameed, and will send him (Mallya) a notice. Whatever has been written about her on twitter, all of that has been filed in the complaint and her lawyers are going to the court too. We are going to pick up this case in the commission,” Singh said Saturday.
Singh informed that Hameed was from America, while her father is from Afghanistan and mother is from Iran.
“I’m very upset, hurt and disappointed by Sidhartha’s comments posted on Twitter and it’s a false claim,” said Hameed who was spotted in black blazer and trousers and came in a white Mercedes car to Singh’s residence in Safdarjung Enclave in south Delhi.
Hameed has also sought Mallya’s unconditional apology, her advocate Jitender Garg said.
Meanwhile, a doctor attending on Sahil Peerzada said he could be discharged from the hospital on Sunday as his condition is now better.
Peerzada had been admitted to Primus Hospital in the diplomatic area Friday following the alleged assault by Pomersback.
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