Who Is Vikas Barala and Why Is His Appointment as Haryana Law Officer Controversial?
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha member Subhash Barala's son Vikas, who is on bail and facing sexual harassment charges was appointed an assistant advocate general for Haryana on July 18.
In 2017, the junior Barala was accused of stalking (section 354D of the Indian Penal Code), wrongful restraint (341) and attempting to kidnap (365) one Varnika Kundu. Kundu is the daughter of former Haryana bureaucrat V.S. Kundu and had alleged in her police complaint that she was chased on the night of August 4 by Vikas and his friend Ashish Kumar, who also tried to get into her car. The case also involved drunk driving.
In the wake of Vikas's appointment, Kundu has told several news outlets that her faith in judiciary is "wavering."
The Quint in its report has highlighted that while charges were were framed on October 13, 2017, the trial remains pending to this day. The next hearing, for the recording of defence evidence, is listed on August 2 this year.
Indian Express reports that Vikas, who was arrested on August 9, 2017, was a law student at the time of the incident. In December 2017, the Panjab and Haryana high court allowed him to appear for his degree exam from Kurukshetra University.
He was incarcerated for less than a year at Chandigarh’s Model Jail at Burail. In January 2018, he got bail.
During this time, his father Subhash was the state BJP president – a position he held from 2014 to 2020.
Vikas’s name is among the 97 new appointments listed in the notification to the posts of assistant advocate generals, deputy advocate generals, senior deputy advocate generals and additional advocate generals.
The Wire had, in 2017, reported how Vikas was not the only one in the Barala family to be involved in violence against a woman.
Kuldeep Barala (Vikas’s cousin) – who was the first member of the Barala family to jump to Vikas’s defence on social media and resort to victim blaming after Kundu made her allegations public – and others have been accused of covering up a case of abduction and rape of a minor girl and intimidating the girl to withdraw her case. The accused in the case is Vikram (he goes by Vicky) Barala, the grandson of Subhash’s brother.
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