Andaman court rejects bail plea of UK national accused of sexual assault

    Port Blair, Mar 21 (PTI) A court in Andaman and Nicobar Islands has rejected the bail plea of a UK national, who was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a female tourist from Bengaluru in the archipelago earlier this month.
    The court Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Port Blair, turned down the bail petition of the accused on Thursday, officials said.
    He has now applied for bail in the District and Sessions Court in Port Blair, and the next date of hearing is yet to be decided, they said.
    A Zero FIR was filed by the woman on March 6, and the accused was subsequently sent to 14-day judicial custody, which ended on March 20.

    His judicial custody has been extended till the next date of hearing.
    Meanwhile, the British Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, told PTI in an email: “We are supporting a British National who has been detained in India and is in contact with the local authorities.”
    “We cannot add or clarify anything beyond...” it added.
    The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police had on March 7 arrested the UK national for allegedly sexually assaulting the 30-year-old woman.
    According to the police complaint lodged by her, the incident took place at a scuba diving resort at Govind Nagar in Swaraj Dweep (Havelock Islands) on February 26.
    Investigation revealed that the woman had travelled to the Andamans with a friend, and later visited Swaraj Dweep where they met the foreign national who was learning scuba diving, the officials said.
    In the FIR, she had stated that trauma and amnesia were the reasons for complaining after more than a week, they added.
    According to the FIR, the UK national was arrested under Section 64 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with punishment for the crime of rape, Section 115(2) of the BNS (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and Section 351(2) of the BNS (offence of criminal intimidation).

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)