The city police have filed a formal interim chargesheet, charging French diplomat Pascal Mazurier with raping his three-and-half-year-old daughter. “The city police have chargesheeted Mr Mazurier under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code for raping his minor daughter. The investigations have found him guilty. The chargesheet was filed on September 12,” said DCP (Central) Ravikante Gowda.
The 39-year-old deputy head of chancery in the French consulate was arrested on June 19 following a complaint by his wife Suja Jones that he had raped their then three-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
The police have included circumstantial evidence and a medical certificate in the chargesheet. It is learnt that Ms Suja Jones has alleged that while the defence has a copy of the chargesheet filed by the police, the investigating officer has not shared the contents of the chargesheet with her.
“How can I trust the police, who are showing hostile attitude towards me by denying the information I am entitled to?” Ms Jones told Deccan Chronicle. It is learnt that the police have once again asked Ms Jones for blood samples of her daughter for further examination.
Mr Mazurier has been in jail since his arrest on June 19. He tried to get bail from the High Court on August 7. In his petition, he had tried to prove his innocence based on the report of the Forensic Sciences Laboratory that had not found any DNA match with the child’s profile. The fast-track court had rejected Mr Mazurier’s bail plea on July 27, observing that “though the DNA test has not tallied with the DNA profile of the accused, bail cannot be granted to him only on this ground”.
Since Mr Mazurier held only a service passport and not a diplomatic one, he was not entitled to diplomatic immunity. The high court has posted his bail plea for September 21. The lawyer for the prosecution, Pramila Nisargi, told Deccan Chronicle, “The case will come up again on September 21, and we will have more clarity on the case by then.”