Bombay HC.
Credit: PTI Photo
The Bombay High Court has granted bail to man arrested for raping a 15-year-old girl citing that she "voluntarily" joined the man despite having "sufficient knowledge and capacity to know full import of what she was doing."
The court also stated that her family was aware of her relationship with the now 25-year old man.
The court also said that the man who was imprisoned for three years and 11 months deserves bail as there was "no possibility of the trial commencing/concluding in the near foreseeable future."
On April 9, a single-judge bench of Justice Miling N Jadhav passed the bail application.
The accused was arrested in May 2021 and was booked for kidnapping and raping minor girl under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act according to a report by Indian Express.
As per the details of the case, in July 2020 the girl left home and did not return, suspecting her relationship with the applicant the victim's father asked him about her whereabouts, which he denied having knowledge about. Two days later the girl informed her father that she was with the man at his native in another state.
In May 2021, the girl informed her father about her pregnancy and that the applicant had refused to marry her following which she returned home to Maharashtra.
The girl in her report stated that she knew the applicant since 2019. He expressed his liking for her which she reciprocated, however her parents disapproved of.
She claimed that he has forceful sexual relations with her in March 2020. In July 2020 when the two were staying outside Maharashtra she became pregnant.
The applicant's lawyer Mateen Qureshi argued that the girl on her own accord stayed with the applicant for 10 months and has not made any complaints of forceful act or coercion against him. Her family, who was well aware of her whereabouts, took no steps to bring her back, making the case "highly questionable."