Rape-accused stepdad pre-arrest bail rejected by HC
Times of India | 26 December 2024
123 Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court rejected the anticipatory bail plea of a man, accused of penetrative sexual assault on his stepdaughter.
The man's counsel had argued that the screenshots of purportedly WhatsApp chats between the accused and the survivor, that the girl had submitted to court was not legally admissible. The HC stated that screenshots being admissible or not was "not germane" at the anticipatory bail stage in cases involving a minor's rape.
The petitioner, a businessman, married the survivor's mother in 2015. In his plea for the anticipatory bail, he claimed after he refused to sponsor the stepdaughter's education abroad, a case was filed against him, accusing him of subjecting her to penetrative sexual assault since 2015. The petitioner claimed the survivor, after a suicide attempt, started living elsewhere and did not have a good relationship with her mother. It was then she insisted on the sponsorship.
But the survivor submitted an affidavit with screenshots of purported online chats between her and the accused. The division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Justice Gaurang Kanth found it "incriminating and gave an impression of continued sexual acts", including persuasion by the stepfather to continue such an association against the survivor's will.
The investigating agency report stated the stepfather had deleted the offensive chats.
In reply to the stepfather's counsel's argument that screenshots could not be treated as legally admissible evidence, the division bench on Dec 19 said, "At the stage of consideration of prayer for anticipatory bail in a case involving the rape of minors... admissibility or otherwise of materials produced before the court is not germane. If allegations in the FIR... are not patently absurd or inherently improbable and the broad probabilities of the case are consistent with human conduct, the court would be inclined to come to a finding that a prima facie case has been made out."
In her statement before the magistrate, the girl had said her mother was a sex worker and that the stepfather started living with them and allegedly sexually exploited her. Fearing her mother's vulnerable status, she kept quiet and attempted suicide, she stated. "It is common knowledge victims of sexual predation by their relations and close associates are hesitant to come out with such painful state of affairs and employ euphemisms to cover the real state of affair," the HC stated, adding in this case, her mother's status was exploited by the stepfather "who claimed to be their protector".
"His ‘good Samaritan' attitude does not improbabilise the allegations. It provided a convenient cover and a probable justification for continuing the nefarious exploitation of a minor victim whose mother comes from a socially insecure background," the bench held.