Mumbai: Court grants bail to student in rape case terming it consensual

A 25yearsold student of a south Mumbaibased college has been granted bail by the session court after being prisoned for a month in a case of rape where the victim was his classmateWhile granting bail the court has observed that when a girl is major having a love affair and is keeping a sexual relationship with a man in that case the consent of the girl cannot be said to have been obtained by fraudThe court noted that the alleged incident happened between July 2016 to June 2021 and FIR was registered this year in April and the accused got arrested in JuneThe court considered that before the FIR was registered this year in April the accused had filed a complaint with Mumbai Police Commissioner and the collector in February and March about the harassment at the hands of the victim and her relativesAlso Read Mumbai Police file FIR against woman for defaming Shiv Sena MP Rahul ShewalerdquoIn his complaint he has said that the girl and her family members are threatening him of filing a case as she have recorded multiple videos of him while having a sexual relationship The victim herself has written love letters and wanted to meet him all the time it was a consensual relationship between both but my client was framed falsely in the case as he belongs to a poor family said advocate Sunil Pandey who represented the accusedThe court has also observed that the primafacie it appears that both were having a consensual relationship ldquoIn the present case primashyfacie it is seen that there is a delay in lodging FIR The photographs and love letters primashyfacie show that the victim and accused were having a consensual relationshiprdquo the court order readsWhile arguing for the accused Pandey told the court rdquoHe is falsely implicated in the present offence He is a bright student and has cleared Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission Examination The alleged incidents occurred from 2016 to Juneshy2021 However the report was lodged this year in April The victim and accused were having a love affair Both visited each others house The victim has attended the programs of relatives of the applicant accused But the report is lodged as the applicant is poor The victim has written love letters to the applicant which show that the victim herself instigated the applicant to establish sexual relations with her The victim is major and highly qualified and aware of the consequences of keeping sexual relations prior to marriagerdquoHowever the prosecution raised an objection to grant bail and submitted that the offence is serious The seized pen drive contains 50 videos and 443 indecent photographs The accused by threatening to make viral those videos committed sexual intercourse with the victim Therefore there is every possibility to threaten the prosecution witnesses and tamper with the prosecution evidence if the accused is released on bailldquoAfter going through the contents of FIR arguments advanced documents annexed with application revealed that the accused and victim were having a love affair The photographs placed on record strengthen the submission of the accused It is seen that prior to the lodging of the report the accused had made complaints with the Commissioner of Police and Collector in February and Marchshy 2022 about the harassment at the hands of the victim and her relativesrdquo the court order readsAs per FIR it is alleged that in July 2016 accused called the victim early in the college on the pretext of arranging a party with friends The victim went to Cafe Coffee Day CCD at about 800 am where the accused was working It is alleged that the accused had taken her to the washroom latched the door kissed her and by disrobing her committed forcible sexual intercourse and captured all their sexual activities in a video secretly It is further alleged that the accused used to threaten her that if she will not continue the relationship then he will make viral her video and thereafter the accused repeatedly committed forcible intercourse with the victim till Juneshy 2021