NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court held that merely because a woman consents to be in the company of a man, regardless of the duration, can never be the basis to infer that she had also consented to “sexual liaison” with him. The court’s observation came while denying regular bail to a man, pretending to be a ‘spiritual guru’, accused of raping a woman of Czech nationality.
The woman alleged that the accused ‘guru’ who would help her perform the post-demise rituals of her deceased husband molested her at a hostel in Delhi and subsequently engaged in a physical liaison with her at Prayagraj and at a hotel in Gaya.
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambahani observed that”... merely because the prosecutrix agreed to accompany the petitioner to various holy places - for purposes of conducting last rites and rituals - does not ipso-facto imply that she consented to sexual relations with him.”
The lawyer who appeared for the accused man argued that the relationship was ‘consensual’ and the FIR came to be registered much later in Delhi and the prosecutrix made no complaint nor any efforts to register any FIR at the various other places where she claims she was sexually assaulted.
In the order, the court highlighted the prosecutrix’s (woman) emotionally vulnerable state, as also the fact that she was in alien places and environments where she was fearful of consequences if she had made a police complaint.