Observing that granting bail to a man booked for repeatedly sexually raping a minor girl since she was about 10 years old would ‘tantamount to further aggravate and fester wounds’ of victim, which are still fresh in her mind, body and soul,” the Bombay High Court rejected relief to him.
“The crime alleged to have been committed by the applicant is not only shocking to the conscience of any prudent man, but it is also obnoxious. Due to such a horrendous crime, the victim has turned into a nymphomaniac,” the bench noted.
The father of the victim reported the crime after the victim allegedly eloped with her cousin in 2021, when she was 17 years old. While trying to search for her, the family found in her bedroom a handwritten notebook with 27 foolscap pages.
They were shocked to read the contents of the notebook wherein the victim described, how when she was only in class 4, she was repeatedly subjected to forcible sexual intercourse and unnatural sex by the applicant who also threatened her with death if she disclosed to anyone about the continuous rape. In the notebook, she also wrote how the wife of the bail applicant allegedly also abetted his acts.
“I do not think anything more is required to be said, for words will fall short to describe the mental, psychological and physical state of the victim and the impact of the ordeal she had undergone at the hands of the applicant,” noted single-judge bench of Justice Prithviraj K Chavan.
The bench noted thet the accused was an erstwhile neighbour of victim’s family, and observed that as per “Guidelines & Protocols – Medico-legal care for survivors/victims of Sexual Violence” most commonly, abusers are persons who are well known to the child and may even be living in the household.
The victim, in her notebook had claimed that the accused would give her some intoxicant tablet and then rape her.
The girl’s parents had earlier refrained from taking any action in view of the matter’s impact on her marriage prospects even after she had apprised them about the frequent incidences. They filed a police complaint against the man and his wife in 2021 after they found the notebook. The parents claimed that the accused and his wife took advantage of the fact that the girl’s father was working outside India.
While the wife of the accused was granted bail by a special court designated under the POCSO Act, relief to the applicant was rejected, prompting him to approach the HC. The bench held that the “role of applicant’s wife was quite apparent as she had abetted and intenetally aided illegal acts”.
Rejecting the man’s plea for release on bail on ground of inordinate delay in lodging FIR, the court also said that the likelihood of him repeating similar offences and threatening and coercing the victim and her parents cannot be ruled out.
Justice Chavan directed the special court to frame charges in the case at the earliest and proceed with the trial without unnecessary adjournments to the parties, and to not get influenced with observations in present order.