The Delhi High Court has recently granted anticipatory bail to a man accused of raping his colleague on the pretext of marriage. The petitioner and the prosecuterix were employees of Jamia Milia Islamia University.
Justice Poonam A. Bamba found force in the petitioner’s argument that the ‘petitioner being a married man was not competent to marry the prosecutrix (who herself was married) and could not have induced her into physical relationship on false promise of marriage.’
Senior Advocate and former Union Minister Salman Khurshid appearing on the behalf of the petitioner had submitted that the petitioner and the prosecuterix knew each other since 2019 and were in consensual relationship, which was evident from their WhatsApp chats.
Khurshid further submitted the prosecuterix had started to make unreasonable demands in garb of the relationship, subsequently a settlement was reached on April 13, 2022, whereby the petitioner had to purchase a flat amounting to Rs. 6-6.5 lakhs in Jamia Nagar for the prosecutrix, dispute arose when she started demanding marital status.
Priyanka Dalal, Assistant Public Prosecutor strongly opposed the bail by stating that repeatedly raped the prosecutrix by extending false promise of marriage, although, he had no intention to marry her.
She further submitted that when he prosecutrix requested the petitioner to marry her, he startedextending threats to her and blackmailing her and upon being threatened by the petitioner that he will release their intimate video, the prosecutrix took a drastic step of consuming sleeping pills and attempted suicide, due to which she remained admitted in hospital from 19.05.2022 to 21.05.2022.