The Supreme Court on Thursday denied bail to a minor rape accused who pleaded that he should be granted bail in the light of Section 12 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.
The bench of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justice Surya Kant, however, directed the trial court to expedite the proceedings and added that the accused can approach for bail after the deposition of the victim girl.
The prosecution case is that the father of the victim girl had gone to participate in a kirtan. When he returned home, he knocked at the door and the door opened without anybody opening it. When he entered the room, he saw the accused was committing rape upon his daughter and after seeing him, the accused fled. When he went to complain about this at the house of the accused, he and his wife were beaten up and threatened that they would be killed.
Before the high court, the counsel for the minor rape accused had submitted that he is innocent and was falsely implicated in the case. “In ossification (Age determination) report, the age of the victim was found to be above 16 years and below 18 years, copy of which he annexed at page-58 of the paper book,” he mentioned.
Further, the high court had noted, “Learned counsel for the applicant has drawn attention to definition of rape under section 375 IPC in which he has mainly stressed on the circumstances which are narrated in the said section, which are seven in number, and out of those, the first circumstance “against her will” and second circumstance “without her consent” have been mainly emphasized and in this case it is argued that both these ingredients are missing, therefore, the offence of rape cannot be made out in the present case as there was no forceful act committed against the victim which is evident from the FIR itself as her father himself has stated when he came to the house, he found that, upon the victim, the accused was lying and moreover, it was also stated that no specific allegation of rape was mentioned in the FIR against the accused. He has also drawn attention to the medical examination report and argued that it does not support the prosecution version as no injury was found to have been sustained by the victim. The applicant declared to be a juvenile. The applicant has declared that he is not involved in any other criminal case. The applicant is languishing in jail since 06.08.2020.”
The relevant portion of Section 12 of of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 is, “When any person accused of a bailable or non-bailable offence, and apparently a juvenile, is arrested or detained or appears or is brought before a Board, such person shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) or in any other law for the time being in force, be released on bail with or without surety.”