Pune: HC Grants Bail To 26-Year-Old Man Accused Of Raping Minor

Rape Accused Granted Bail: A 26-year-old man was given bail in the rape case of a minor girl by the Bombay High Court on the basis of the number of visits the survivor made to the accused's house. According to reports, the survivor had visited the residential premises of the accused on two occasions.

A man from Pune, Vishnu Sitaram Sarode was accused of raping a 16-year-old minor girl in December 2018, January 2019 and the early weeks of February 2019. He was also accused of stalking, sexual assault, and criminal intimidation of a minor. The case was registered on July 19, 2019. The survivor in her complaint said that she was threatened to have intercourse with him.

Rape Accused Granted Bail By Bombay High Court

Justice Prakash D Naik heard the proceedings of the case and gave bail to the accused. The court order read, "At his request she had visited the premises and in 2018 the accused had subjected her to sexual intercourse. Thereafter, on two occasions she had visited the residential premises of applicant and similar acts were committed. This indicates that victim and the accused were in a relationship. (sic)"

Advocate Ganesh Gupta, the defence lawyer of the 26-year-old man accused of raping a minor said, ".... it can be easily inferred that the relationship between the accused and victim was consensual, because on three occasions they indulge in sexual intercourse, but the victim never raised an alarm. She kept on visiting the flat of the accused."

He added, "Apart from the above there is a delay of seven months in lodging the FIR which implies that the FIR is lodged only after the parents came to know about this and they objected to their affair." He also said that the survivor had claimed that the man was married at the time of the abuse. Gupta argued against this point and said the accused man wasn't married back then.

The High Court has ordered that the accused man is no longer needed to be kept in police custody and hence is being granted bail. The order also mentions that the consent of the minor girl under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act is immaterial.