Bombay HC grants bail to man in minor's rape case, says she 'voluntarily' joined him

In a shocking statement, the Bombay High Court has granted bail to a man arrested for raping a 15-year-old girl citing that the girl "voluntarily" joined the man despite having "sufficient knowledge and capacity to know full import of what she was doing." The court also said that the man deserved a bail because he was incarcerated for three years and 11 months and there was "no possibility of the trial commencing/concluding in the near foreseeable future."

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The accused was arrested in 2021 and was booked under offences of kidnapping and raping minor girl under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. A single-judge bench of Justice Milind N Jadhav on April 9 passed an order on bail application. The bail order was passed on April 9 and the man got out of the jail today.

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What was the case?

As per a report in The Indian Express, the victim’s father filed an FIR in August 2020, and has stated that her daughter had left the house and is allegedly with the accused in another state. Later, in May, 2021, the victim, a minor (then 15 years and 3 months old) informed her father about her pregnancy and the accused's refusal to marry her. As per the FIR, she was then brought back to Maharashtra.

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In the statement by the victim, she said that she knew the accused since 2019 and would regularly meet, despite the disapproval of her parents.She claimed that he had forceful sexual relations with her in March, 2020. Later, during their stay outside Maharashtra in July, 2020, they had physical relations, which led to her pregnancy.

Advocate Mateen Qureshi, appearing for the accused argued that the girl on her own volition had stayed with the applicant for 10 months.Qureshi also argued that despite the father being aware of her location, he did not take any measures to secure her custody.

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(With inputs from agencies)