Public outcry doesn't lessen seriousness of offence: Delhi HC

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Public outcry and media coverage do not lessen the seriousness of an offence, the Delhi High Court has said while denying bail to a man accused of raping and murdering his eight-year-old cousin. (HT Archive)
The man was booked under various provisions of Indian Penal Code including murder, kidnapping, and Section 6 (penetrative sexual assault) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012.
The FIR, filed in 2016, was based on a complaint by the victim's father, who reported that his daughter had been abducted while playing outside their home. Police learned that the accused had raped the girl, strangled her, concealed her body in a plastic bag, and buried it in a pit.
In his bail petition, the man said he was falsely implicated in the case under public pressure and glare of media trial. He said he had already spent more than nine years in jail and there was no likelihood of the trial to conclude in the near future.
The Delhi police, represented by additional public prosecutor Amit Ahlawat, said there had been no delay in trial and four out of 20 witnesses had supported prosecution's case. The complainant's lawyer opposed the bail asserting that the accused's family members had been threatening him.
Rejecting the man's contention, justice Girish Kathpalia in his ruling delivered on Friday, said , 'The broad picture recorded above shows the gruesome manner in which an eight-year-old girl was raped and killed, that too by her own cousin. Merely because there was public outcry and media coverage of the incident, gravity of offence does not get diminished.'
In its five-page ruling, the judge said the man exploited the relationship of trust between the cousins in a 'brutal manner.' 'One also cannot ignore that a relationship of trust between the cousins was exploited by the accused/applicant and in such a brutal manner,' the court said.