Granting bail to a man arrested for allegedly raping a minor girl in 2019, the Bombay High Court earlier this week observed that the girl, who was in love with the man, had voluntarily stayed with him and had “consensual encounter”.The high court passed the order in the bail application of the accused who was arrested by the police in 2019, when he was 19, for the alleged offences of rape and kidnapping under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the POCSO Act based on an FIR filed by the father of the girl, then aged 14.“No doubt that the girl was a minor. However, the facts of the present case indicate that she had sufficient knowledge and capacity to know the full import of her actions and what she was doing and had only thereafter voluntarily joined and stayed with the applicant for four days,” the single-judge bench of Justice Milind N Jadhav stated in the February 17 order.The court noted that the man was incarcerated as an undertrial for over five years. It said that even though the offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which is a special law, are “stringent” in nature, the same “would not deter the Court to grant or refuse bail in order to secure the ends of justice.”As per the complaint filed by the girl’s father, she had told him that she was visiting her married sister, but she left the sister’s house and did not return for three-four days. The FIR was lodged after the father found the girl with the applicant four days later.The girl’s lawyer opposed the bail plea stating that as she was 14 years old at the time of the incident, her consent would not matter.The court perused the material on record, including the medical report of the girl, wherein she had given a statement that the two had a consensual relationship. It noted that there is a “clear variance” between her statement and the FIR. The high court, prima facie, observed that the girl’s father was aware of her relationship with the applicant.Story continues below this adJustice Jadhav also noted that the Supreme Court and other courts have repeatedly “favoured release of young offenders on bail pending trial so that regressive influences of jail environment can be avoided” and keeping in mind their “best interest”.“In the present case before me, it is crucial to consider whether the act between the parties is violent or otherwise and in the present case it is not. Another mitigating factor is whether there are any criminal antecedents of the applicant which in the present case are none. The aforesaid mitigating facts and applicant’s incarceration for more than 5 years 2 months and 23 days, therefore, persuade me to consider applicant’s case,” the judge noted while granting bail to the man.© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Bombay High CourtMumbai