NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has cancelled the bail granted to a man accused of raping a woman suffering from bipolar disorder by luring her on the pretext that there was an evil spirit of a dog in her body that needed to be removed by an occultist.
Justice Mukta Gupta set aside the bail granted by the trial court and said the accused lives in the vicinity of the prosecutrix and is likely to intimidate or influence her again.
The judge, who was dealing with a challenge to the bail order filed by the father of the prosecutrix, directed the accused to surrender within a week and observed that the trial court order suffered from "gross illegality" as it ignored the woman's statement given to the magistrate, the seriousness of the offence and the fact that her statement was yet to be recorded for trial.
"The impugned order dated 7th September, 2021 is set aside. The bail granted to respondent no.2 (accused) is cancelled. Respondent no.2 will surrender to custody within one week," the court ordered.
The prosecutrix, a 37-year-old woman who suffered from bipolar disorder and was going through a divorce, was taken to Nainital instead of Vaishno Devi by the accused who put vermilion on her head to make her believe that they were married and then committed sexual intercourse with her.
Granting bail to the accused, the trial court had said bipolar disorder did not permanently affect the mental status and a video of the accused and the prosecutrix prima facie showed that the woman was conscious, oriented and aware of the nature of the act and that she could be seen voluntarily accompanying the accused.
Justice Gupta opined that the trial court "failed to notice that consciousness and orientation are different from being able to exercise sound mental judgment and to realise that the victim is being enticed to fall prey to the accused".
"The learned Additional Sessions Judge failed to notice that the respondent no.2 was living in the neighbourhood of the prosecutrix, thus was aware of the mental faculties of the victim and taking advantage thereof, as her marriage was broken and she was eager to get married, he lured her stating that he would get the evil spirit out of her soul, get her married to a boy and called her on 21st July, 2021.
"On the pretext of taking her to Vaishno Devi, respondent no.2 took her to Nainital where he performed sexual relationship by giving intoxicants in cold drinks," the court recorded in the order passed on Friday.
It also rejected the accused's contention that the father of the prosecutrix cannot be permitted to act as her legal guardian and file the present petition seeking cancellation of bail.
The court observed that the parents of the prosecutrix are the complainants who lodged the complaint immediately and they certainly fall within the category of "aggrieved persons".
The prosecution told the court that the statement of the prosecutrix before the magistrate described in detail how the accused manipulated her and took advantage of her mental condition.