Lack of injuries does not rule out rape, says HC, denies bail | News from India

Mumbai: Denying bail to a man accused of raping a 17-year-old girl, the Bombay HC recently said he could not be given a clean bill of health just because she had no injuries on her body.

“Just because the medical examination report does not explicitly describe any injuries on the victim’s body, it cannot be assumed that the applicant can be given a certificate of innocence. In fact, the medical report concludes that sexual assault cannot be ruled out,” Justice Manish Pitale said in an order dated June 11.

The FIR states that the girl had left home for certain reasons. The man found her crying, persuaded her to go with him, took her to a hotel and forced himself on her, it is said. The next day, he called her father and gave him a place to pick her up. After the girl narrated what had happened, he was arrested on April 17, 2023.

The man’s lawyer said the allegations were not logical as he himself had called the girl’s father and informed him about her. If he had indeed committed the alleged act, it was unnatural for him to approach her father, the lawyer said, adding that the medical report did not show any physical injuries or signs of forced sex as the girl had claimed.

The judge said the girl’s statement showed that the man approached her when she was alone in a place outside her residence and in a disturbed state of mind. After she joined him in his vehicle, he gave her water to drink and thereafter she fell asleep. She described in “sufficient detail” what he did. “Although the victim herself stated that the plaintiff called her father…, this in itself cannot lead to a favorable conclusion for the plaintiff,” said Justice Pitale.

He said the man did not claim to have known her or that they had a relationship that would suggest this could have been the background for consensual sex. “In a situation where a married man such as the complainant is taking advantage of a single girl, the absence of physical injuries may not be relevant,” he added.

Justice Pitale rejected the bail application on the grounds that “the allegations are serious and the offences recorded… are equally serious”, including in view of the Pocso Act.