Court refuses bail to ‘schizophrenic’ booked for raping two minor girls

A 45-year-old schizophrenic man from Mumbai has been denied bail after being accused of sexually assaulting and raping two 8-year-old girls in 2015. The court cited the possibility of him repeating the crime and pressurizing the girls if released. The accused had previously been convicted in another case for outraging the modesty of a minor girl.

MUMBAI: A special POCSO (Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court recently rejected the bail application of a 45-year-old schizophrenic from Goregaon who has been arrested for sexually assaulting and raping two 8-year-old girls from his society in 2015.

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“The accused is a habitual offender,” said special judge SM Takalikar, adding that there is a possibility of him repeating the crime and pressurizing the girls if he was released on bail.

The complainant is the father of one of the two girls. According to him, on October 29, 2015, when he came back home around 9.30pm, his daughter informed him that around 8.15pm, when she and her friend were walking on the footpath, an unknown person blocked their way.

He asked them to accompany him and offered them chocolates and ice cream. They, however, refused and headed back home.

She added that the accused followed them and after threatening the girls, he took them to a secluded spot where he raped them and ran away. Her father then approached the Amboli police and lodged a complaint. The police registered an FIR and arrested the accused.

During the trial, his lawyers argued that the prosecution’s case against the accused, who was being treated for schizophrenia at JJ hospital, was very doubtful, as the girls did not cry or shout for help.

The court, however, rejected his defence of mental illness after noticing that the accused had submitted a medical report issued in 2018, which showed that he was treated for schizophrenia between 2010 and 2014, but the offence was committed in 2015,” the judge said while directing the Jail Superintendent to get the accused medically evaluated.

The court further observed that the accused had already been convicted in another case in 2021 for outraging the modesty of a minor girl and was out on bail when he committed the second crime and, in that trial, did not take the defence of his mental illness.

The accused has been booked under sections 376 (rape), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 506(2) (criminal intimidation), 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and sections 4 (Penetrative sexual assault), 8 (Punishment for sexual assault), and 12 (sexual harassment) of the POCSO Act, 2012.