Tanisha Rana
Published on: October 16, 2022 at 21:44 IST
A man who was found guilty of raping a woman under the false pretence of marriage recently received bail from the Delhi High Court, which also suspended his sentence.
The convict had maintained that the complainant was aware of his prior marriage and that they had met through the casual dating website Tinder.
He continued by saying that her blog posts also demonstrated her own lack of belief in the institution of marriage.
In his ruling, Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta noted that the complainant woman’s social media posts and blogs appeared to indicate her opposition to the institution of marriage and support for live-in relationships.
The judge stated that since the blogs were written before the alleged incident was reported and it appears that the first sexual contact was fully voluntary, it is important to keep this in context.
“Having regard to the evidence on record and the infirmities pointed out by the learned counsel for the appellant, I am of the considered opinion that the sentence of the appellant be suspended till the disposal of appeal and he be admitted to bail…,” the Court ordered.
A criminal accused’s appeal of the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ), Patiala House courts’ verdict and sentence was being heard by Justice Mendiratta.
He was found guilty of raping the woman, but the Section 313 of the Indian Penal Code (causing a miscarriage without the victim’s consent) charges against him were dropped by the court.
The convicted man was represented by senior counsel N Hariharan, as well as attorneys Bharat Chugh, Siddharth Shiva Kumar, Siddarth S Yadav, Varun Deswal, Punya Rekha Angara, Prateek Bhalla, Sharian Mukherji, Rahul Sambher, Kaushal Kaushik, and Adab Ahmad.
Aman Usman, an APP, represented the State.