Delhi High Court denies bail to man accused of raping minor after forced marriage

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a bail plea of a man accused of raping a minor, allegedly after marrying her forcefully in Arya Samaj Mandir by fraudulently updating her ‘date of birth’ record in the Aadhaar Card.

A Single-Judge Bench of Justice Anu Malhotra observed that though the prosecutrix (the alleged victim) denied any physical medical examination pursuant to registration of FIR, a rather peculiar question which remained unanswered was the date of birth of the girl, to ascertain whether she was minor at the time of the alleged sexual offence.

It further observed that the seized documents (including the girl’s Aadhaar card, old school id, photocopy of marriage certificate) from the house of accused created doubt regarding the change in date of birth in Aadhaar Card of the victim by the accused to make her appear a major and forcefully marrying her in Aarya Samaj Mandir, later to commit the alleged sexual offence.

The bench, however, made it clear that the aforesaid decision of rejecting the bail application of the accused shall not amount to any expression on the merits or demerits of the trial in the case.

According to the FIR lodged on July 17, 2021, the victim alleged that the accused was her brother’s friend, who befriended her prior a year ago. She said the accused took her to Connaught Place and clicked some pictures with her. He threatened her to circulate her photographs online and to kill her father and brother if she did not marry him. The same day, the victim and the accused got hitched at an Arya Samaj Mandir. Two days later, the accused called the victim at his friend’s place and committed the said sexual assault. It was further stated that the accused called the victim again after 2-3 days and committed the same offence again.

The Counsel for the accused argued that the relation between the two was wholly consensual and no offence in terms of POCSO is made out since the prosecutrix was a major at the time of the alleged offence. The accused also submitted the photographs of the said marriage to emphasise the ‘consensual’ part by stating that the prosecutrix reflected clearly a happy state of mind when she married the accused.

The Counsel for the accused further said that it was the girl, who invited the accused and not vice-versa. It was also argued that the victim had put forth her date of birth as being October 10, 2002 and that is why the applicant was not aware of her being a minor and that even if her date of birth was accepted as being October 10, 2004, she was not at an age where she could be termed to be naive and gullible.

The Court observed that the school records show her being a minor and as per the history of her Aadhaar card updates, it reads, her being a minor at the time of alleged offence on April 10, 2021. The Bench also observed that there was no fluctuation in the girl’s first statement under Section 164 and what she deposed before the Magistrate.

The Bench observed that though the girl denied any medical examination and she also did not know the name of the accused’s friend at whose place the alleged offence was committed, the factum that the date of birth of the victim was got updated in her Aadhaar Card by putting a wrong date of birth by the accused as being October 10, 2002 in place of October 10, 2004, cannot be overlooked.