Panaji: A Pocso court has granted bail to two men accused of raping a 17-year-old girl after she consented to them being granted bail. The court stated that prima facie evidence indicates that she is pregnant, but not on account of either of the two.
The girl’s mother’s complaint stated that the two men had raped her daughter without her consent on different occasions, due to which she became pregnant. The girl, who said she wants to continue with the pregnancy, stated that she was friendly with one of the accused since 2023, and that they were in a relationship. After they broke up, she began a relationship with the second accused, who was her mother’s boyfriend. They broke up after fifteen days.
The court stated that since the survivor had no objection to the bail, it would not serve any purpose keeping them in custody, and it would amount to their incarceration.
The court said that since the victim is within the the age range of 17 and 25 years, whether she was a consenting party or not would assume importance.
The court said that as per the lawyer of accused no 2, the survivor “is carrying a pregnancy of five months”. “The incident is alleged to have taken place in Jan 2024 and therefore, though the date of the incident is stated to be Jan 2024, but she has conceived five months prior to date of report, that is, Aug 12, 2024, somewhere in March 2024, and the prosecution has not explained this discrepancy,” said the court.
The court also noted that there is no allegation of force or misrepresentation by the complainant as regards accused no 1 and 2 are concerned.
“In these peculiar circumstances of the case where the victim has no-objection for grant of bail, keeping accused nos 1 and 2 in custody would not serve any purpose. The charge is yet to be framed in the matter, and the prosecution has cited 13 witnesses,” said additional sessions judge, North Goa, Panaji, and presiding officer, fast track special court, Panaji (POCSO), Apurva Nagvenkar.
“Hence, it would be in the interest of justice to grant bail to accused nos 1 and 2,” she said.
English (US) ·