Man arrested for sexually assaulting friend on crowded Mumbai beach gets bail

The man has been in jail since June 2021.

Mumbai:

The Bombay High Court has granted bail to a man arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman at a crowded beach in Mumbai in 2021, noting that the survivor and the accused were friends and the charges against him seemed implausible.

Justice Prithiviraj Chavan, in an order passed on Wednesday, noted that the survivor’s statement recorded in the magistrate’s court revealed that she was a friend of the accused and noted that the charges in the three-year-old case have not yet been framed by the magistrate’s court. trial court.

“Prima facie, since the victim was a Major at the time of the alleged offence, the applicant would have had forced sexual intercourse with the victim in broad daylight at the crowded Juhu Chowpatty (beach) on Eid-ul-Azha,” the HC observed.

The judge added that no reasonable person would believe this.

The high court also said that since the survivor was an adult when the incident occurred, there was no need to invoke the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO) against the accused.

The accused has been charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, including rape, outrage on modesty of a woman and stalking, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act.

The incident allegedly took place on May 14, 2021, when the survivor along with the accused went to Juhu Chowpatty on the outskirts of Mumbai.

He sought sexual favors, but the survivor refused. However, the defendant then threatened her with dire consequences and sexually assaulted her at a remote location in a tourist attraction, prosecutors said.

In its order, the court noted that there was no need to invoke the POCSO Act against the accused as the age of the survivor was above 18 years as per the medical report.

The applicant has been in prison since his arrest in June 2021. The High Court noted that the trial court had not yet framed the charges and therefore it was not possible to bring the logic of the trial to a close (soon).

The judge said the application (for bail) was allowed “in view of all the above-mentioned special circumstances”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)