‘She considered you a brother’: Delhi HC denies bail in rape of minor

The case had stemmed from an FIR filed in which the minor had asserted that the man took her to a hotel on a false pretext and forcibly raped her.

The Delhi High Court denied bail to a man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl, saying that the case involved breach of trust along with rape, as the victim considered the accused as her brother.

The order said, “Considering the above circumstances, I do not find it fit to grant bail. Therefore, the application is dismissed,” Delhi HC said. (PTI/Representational Image)

In its March 24 order, a bench of justice Girish Kathpalia stated, “In her FIR, the prosecutrix has narrated the incident in detail, including the manner in which she tried to resist but was immobilised and gagged with a cloth by the applicant. It is not a case of only alleged rape. It is a case where the prosecutrix considered the applicant as a brother and tied a rakhi on him, thereby trusting him.”

The order added, “Considering the above circumstances, I do not find it fit to grant bail. Therefore, the application is dismissed.”

The man had approached the high court seeking bail in a rape case registered against him in 2021. The case had stemmed from an FIR filed in which the minor had asserted that the man took her to a hotel on a false pretext and forcibly raped her.

The man represented by Bibek Tripathi said that the only ground for bail was that he had been in custody for the past four and a half years.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police represented by additional public prosecutor Sanjeev Sabharwal opposed the bail due to the seriousness of the offence. He said the victim’s testimony before the trial court completely supported the prosecution’s case, with only two formal witnesses remaining to be examined.