Observing that a man accused of raping a nearly 13-year-old girl had already spent 3.5 years in jail and that the trial was likely to take considerable time, the Bombay High Court on Thursday granted him bail.

The court prima facie noted that the accused and the minor survivor were in a love relationship and that continued detention could adversely affect his mental and physical well-being.

A single-judge bench of Justice Shyam C Chandak passed the order on a bail application by a now nearly 22-year-old man. He was arrested over an FIR registered by the Mumbai Police on a complaint by the mother of the minor survivor in December, 2022.

The FIR invoked provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) relating to rape of a girl below 16 years of age, kidnapping and outraging a woman’s modesty, besides provisions of the Protection of Children From Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Information and Technology (IT) Act, 2000.

Advocates Harekrishna Mishra, Jyoti S Gupta and Prablin Singh Abrol argued that the two came in contact with each other through Instagram, and gradually, a friendship developed between them and they decided to elope.

The applicant’s lawyers stated that the two met in Mumbai in December 2022 and subsequently left for Pune. According to them, it was a case of a “love affair.”

Mishra argued that the allegation of forcible sexual intercourse was made by the victim at the instance of her parents, while she had stated during her medical examination that the applicant was her “Instagram boyfriend”. The lawyers submitted that further incarceration of the applicant was not warranted and sought bail.

The prosecution and the girl’s mother, however, opposed the bail plea and argued that the applicant had induced the girl to elope with him and then took her to his residence in Pune and raped her.

After examining the material on record, Justice Chandak observed that, as per the medical report, “there is prima facie case against the Applicant of having committed the alleged offences.”

The judge, however, went on to observe that “prima facie it appears that the victim and the applicant were in love relationship” and the statement by his mother indicated that when she inquired with the two about their relationship, they threatened to die by suicide.
The HC observed that the applicant, who was “just 18 years and 9 months at the time of offence” belonged to the “poor strata of society”.

“It appears that the Applicant could not realise the serious consequences of this offence due to young age,” it added.

Considering 3 and a half years of incarceration, the HC observed that “his mental and physical well-being must be adversely affected due to his detention in jail”.

Granting bail to the applicant, the HC observed that as the “trial will take a considerable time”, his incarceration “will not serve any purpose.”