‘No Strings Attached': HC cites casual relationship in granting bail to rape accused
C
handigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court granted bail to a rape accused, citing a recorded conversation that suggested a relationship marked by free will and no commitment.
Drawing a parallel with the 2011 Hollywood movie, "No Strings Attached," the court noted that the connection between the complainant and the accused reflected a mutual relationship not persuaded by any assurance or promise of marriage.
"The prosecutrix-complainant and the petitioner used to work in the same company. A perusal of the transcript appended by the petitioner along with the instant petition shows that there was a long-standing cordial relationship between the prosecutrix and the petitioner, and the possibility of the relationship being without any commitment and with no strings attached cannot be entirely ruled out," the HC held.
Further mentioning the transcribed conversation between the complainant and the rape accused, the court recorded that the complainant expressed her obsession with the petitioner and threatened that she would not allow him to marry anybody else until she herself got married.
The court noted, "The prosecutrix-complainant was aware of the petitioner being in a relationship with another girl for more than 12 years and that he had contemplated matrimony with the said girl.
She, in fact, threatened to expose the petitioner to the said girl as well."
Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj passed these orders while granting regular bail to a person from Gurgaon who was booked on Feb 21 for raping a girl who worked with him in a private company in Badshahpur, Gurgaon.
It was alleged that the petitioner promised to marry the victim and stay together in the future, and under this allure, she became intimate with the petitioner.
The allegations included that the victim became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage due to stress and weakness.
The petitioner, on the other hand, argued that prior to the registration of the instant FIR, a complaint was submitted by the victim on Jan 15, wherein an investigating officer was appointed. The statements of the parties were recorded by the inquiry officer, and a finding was recorded that they entered a consensual relationship with each other with no deployment of deceitful means for having a physical relationship.
The said complaint was accordingly recommended to be filed by the investigating officer on Jan 19. However, the girl once again approached the ACP of the area, and her complaint was converted into a FIR.
Seeking bail, the counsel for the petitioner contended that the complainant was already fully aware that the petitioner had been in a relationship with another girl for more than 12 years and there was no assurance, commitment, or allurement on the part of the petitioner to enter matrimony with her.
After examining the previous complaint and going through the transcribed conversation between the petitioner and the victim, the HC granted bail to the accused. "Hence, the ingredient of the offence required to be established must precede the relationship between the parties. The contemporaneous evidence does lean to some extent in favour of the petitioner as well; however, the actual assessment thereof is to be done at the stage of trial," the HC held in its June 5 order released on Monday.
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