The Allahabad High Court recently granted bail to two men in a rape case. Court took note of the fact that there was an inordinate delay in lodging of the First Information Report (FIR) in the matter.
The bench of Justice Krishan Pahal observed that though “the Apex Court in Bharwada Bhoginbhai Hirjibhai vs. State of Gujarat (1983) has categorically opined that in the current nonpermissive Indian society, no girl would foist a false case of sexual assault against any person to avoid being maligned in society, much water has flown down the Ganges since then”.
“The Indian society has undergone a complete change during the said period of about 40 years and now it is more often observed that false implication in sexual offences is on a rise,” the judge said.
Keeping the same in view, the judge opined that an inordinate delay in lodging the FIR should be considered at the time of adjudicating the bail.
The court was dealing with the bail applications of one Sandeep Kumar Mishra and Chandan Kumar involved in a case registered under Sections 376-D, 342, and 506 of the Indian Penal Code.
Allegations against the accused persons were that they had raped the informant’s wife while he was out of station. The informant had also alleged that the accused persons had threatened him of dire consequences if he reports the case.
The alleged incident happened on July 1, 2019 and the FIR in the matter was lodged on September 9, 2019.
The delay was explained as such that the informant had left the city in June and his wife came to him in August 2019 when she told him about the incident on August 3, 2019. The informant filed an application two days after he got to know about the incident, but the FIR was registered on September 9, 2019.
The counsel for the accused contended that the informant and his wife had cooked up the rape story just to harass them.
The counsel apprised the court that the informant and his wife were associated with ‘Janeu Kranti Abhiyan’ and its Ashram and the accused, who were also followers of the godman associated with the said Ashram, had enquired about the illegal activities being undertaken by the victim and other activists of the Ashram.
Importantly, the counsel contended that these days there are mobile phones, and the victim, who is an educated woman, could have easily narrated the incident to her husband on the phone also.
He stressed that the facts that there was an inordinate delay in FIR and it was lodged at a city that was 800 km away from the city of the incident spoke volume of the malicious intent of the informant to implicate the accused persons.
On the other hand, the counsel for the state argued that it is not possible in Indian society for a woman to foist false allegations of rape.
He further stated that the delay caused in lodging the FIR was but natural as the victim was under acute pressure due to the Indian values to not to reveal the said act committed with her.
However, the court while considering the facts and circumstances of the case, submissions made by counsel for the parties, the evidence on record, the inordinate delay in lodging of the FIR and also the fact that the trial was at its conclusive end, without expressing any opinion on the merit of the case, allowed the bail pleas.
Source : Law Beat
