The Delhi High Court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to a man accused of indulging in sexual acts with a woman on the “false pretext of marriage”, noting that he cheated her “on every occasion” and is a proclaimed offender.
“The petitioner is not entitled to anticipatory bail considering his conduct of cheating the prosecutrix on every occasion and primarily because he did not join the investigation and has been declared a proclaimed offender. The petition is dismissed accordingly,” Justice Yogesh Khanna observed.
The single-judge bench was hearing the anticipatory bail application against a First Information Report (FIR) registered at Vasant Kunj Police Station for offences under Section 376 (Punishment of Rape) and 506 (Punishment for Criminal Intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The prosecutrix in the complaint alleged that she had been exploited by the man under the guise of marriage since October 2018.
The petitioner claimed that the alleged promise to marry, if any, was made in October 2018 through Shaadi.com, a matrimonial website, when the two first met and indulged in sexual intercourse. It is further stated that later, in March 2019, they went to Agra and made consensual relations.
The petitioner also claimed that the prosecutrix in 2019 came to know that he had not divorced his wife, but she continued the consensual relationship with him. It is further contended that now the prosecutrix cannot plead she was innocent and was duped by the petitioner as she had consensual relations with him until February 2022.
The court observed that on bare reading of the FIR, the accused misrepresented himself as a divorcee and that his wife and children reside in Canada. He even changed his name to Vishal and provided a false address in East of Kailash rather than Chander Nagar, Janakpuri, Delhi, the court noted.
It also noted that right from the start, there was misrepresentation/misconception, and false promises were made to get the prosecutrix to engage in a sexual act, and stated that “it appears that the prosecutrix learned of his marriage in 2019 and filed a complaint, but it was withdrawn as the accused assured her that he would get a divorce from his wife, which was under process. Here too he showed her some documents purportedly a petition of divorce (fake) pending at Dwarka Court”.
“Thus, at every step, he misrepresented the facts to obtain her consent on false grounds/facts, and there exists a direct nexus of false promise to the prosecutrix decision to engage in a sexual act”, the single-judge bench observed.
The court noted that even in the statement made before the magistrate under Section 164 CrPC, the prosecutrix stated that when she learned of his marriage, he assured her that he would divorce his previous wife and marry her. He even displayed a forged divorce petition and engaged in another sexual act.
Furthermore, the court noted that the petitioner did not join the investigation and on May 11, 2022, Non-Bailable Warrants (NBWs) were issued against him, but they were stayed by the Magistrate. The high court stayed such orders on August 2, 2022, as the applicant’s previous three anticipatory bail applications were denied. Accordingly, the court dismissed the petition.
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