The IAF officer was arrested on charges of raping a woman colleague. (Representational)
A district court in Coimbatore on Saturday allowed the police to interrogate flight lieutenant Amitesh Harmuk of the Indian Air Force (IAF), accused of raping a woman colleague, while remaining in the custody of the IAF.
The Mahila Court had handed over the accused to IAF custody from police custody after which the city police filed a revision petition seeking custody of him to complete the investigation as the rape victim had filed complaint in the city police station.
The Principal Additional District Court, while allowing the police to interrogate Amitesh even while in IAF custody, directed the police to provide advance intimation to the IAF for the interrogating the accused and the IAF authority should not interrupt the investigation on their campus, police said.
Harmuk was arrested on September 25 on charges of raping a woman colleague on September 10.
The police had taken action based on the complaint by the woman officer, who alleged that IAF authorities had failed to act on her complaints and so she approached the city Commissioner of police.
The police officer directed the station to register an FIR, following which Amitesh was arrested and was in police custody.
Citing the IAF Act, the Air Force authorities sought the custody of the accused to conduct the court martial and said police had no jurisdiction on the defence issue.
Additional Mahila Court Judge (In-charge) Thilageswari then ordered that he be handed over to the IAF.
Following this, the city police filed the revision petition to regain the custody of the accused.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)