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Mumbai man accused of rape, setting woman ablaze gets bail for marriage
The man was granted bail two days before he was scheduled to get married.
A 28-year-old man accused of raping a divorced woman for 10 years, getting her to abort 12 pregnancies and also setting her ablaze, was granted bail by a sessions court on Wednesday.
The man was granted bail two days before he was scheduled to get married. In 2017, the woman, who is the mother of two girls, registered a case of rape and attempt to murder against the man, a Jogeshwari resident.
The man was arrested by the Oshiwara police in March this year. The woman and he has been in a relationship since 2008 when he was 18. Additional sessions judge VA Raut observed, “It seems that there were consensual relations between the applicant [the man] and the complainant. As there is marriage of the applicant, he deserves bail.”
The woman had alleged that the man started talking to her 10 years ago and then “took her to some temple and promised to marry her” after which they got intimate. She claimed “he came on and off and had physical relationship”.
He got her pregnant 12 times and subsequently made her terminate the pregnancies, she said. In December 2010, she sustained burn injuries and a year later she accused the man of setting her ablaze. Among the complaints, she also alleged that because of his beatings, she has suffered injury to her kidney.
The man’s advocate Falguni Bhrambhatt argued that it was the woman who insisted on the relationship. “She compelled him to keep relations with her although she was older to him and he was 18. She forced him to be with her against his will.”
Bhrambhatt further argued that the complainant would assault and blackmail the man saying that she would falsely implicate him if he refused to marry her. He had also submitted a written complaint against the woman to the Oshiwara police station for mental and physical harassment as his marriage was fixed with someone else. After this, the woman lodged a complaint, based on which an FIR was registered , she argued.
Special public prosecutor Kalpana Hire objected to his bail plea arguing that the statements of the witnesses are yet to be recorded and that the charge-sheet is yet to be filed. The finger print report is also awaited, she said. However, the judge granted him bail observing that the duo appeared to have been in a consensual relationship.
