The Delhi High Court has granted bail to a 24-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a minor girl after finding a lack of medical evidence to support the rape allegation. The man was accused of sexually assaulting the girl in two separate incidents in June and July 2021, when he was 22 years old and the girl was between 14-15 years old. Despite the consent of the minor being irrelevant due to her age, the court acknowledged that she willingly met and accompanied the accused on both occasions without coercion or physical threats.
The court considered several factors before granting bail, including the fact that all key witnesses had already given their testimonies during the trial and the accused had no previous criminal record. The court also found no evidence suggesting that he posed a flight risk or would tamper with evidence. However, the accused was directed not to contact, threaten or influence any prosecution witness, tamper with evidence, or interact with the prosecutrix or her family directly or indirectly.
The court noted that the accused and the girl had an on-going relationship and had even stayed in a hotel together. Justice Bhambani said that while there may be a debate about the innocence of both parties, the age difference was not significant enough to categorize the alleged act as vile, and it was possible that they were in an innocent physical alliance, albeit an unholy one, which deserved to be looked at with less severity.
Initially, the girl’s mother reported an attempted assault, but later retracted her statement, stating that no offence was committed against her daughter. The court noted that the contradictory narration of the mother cannot be ignored.
In conclusion, the lack of medical evidence played a key role in the court’s decision to grant bail to the accused. Despite acknowledging the probable existence of a physical relationship between the accused and the minor, the court found that there was insufficient evidence to prove rape beyond any reasonable doubt and granted bail on the basis of the factors considered.
