Delhi court grants bail to man after woman he met on Bumble alleged rape on false promise of marriage

Delhi's Saket court recently granted bail to a man booked for rape on a false promise of marriage he gave a woman on dating app Bumble. [State v. Gautam Kumar].While granting bail to the man, Judge Sunil Gupta noted,"It is settled law that merely because the accused was out on interim bail does not entitle him to be released on regular bail still considering the facts and circumstances along with the valuable right to life and liberty of the applicant and the fact that there was no apprehension of the prosecution or the complainant that the applicant can influence/intimidate the witnesses, it will not be in the interest of justice to send the applicant in custody again.".Counsel for the accused argued that his client did not give the complainant woman a promise of marriage after they met on Bumble.Promises of marriage shouldn't be anticipated in relationships originating from dating apps, the counsel contended. He added that that woman had previously filed a similar case against another individual.It was further argued that the relationship was consensual and hence the complainant's consent cannot be considered invalidated by an alleged false promise of marriage by the accused..On the other hand, the State counsel challenged the maintainability of the bail application and said that as per the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), bail can't be granted to a person already in custody.The complainant's counsel argued that his client gave her consent for the release of the accused on interim bail on January 8 upon the request of his relatives, who had assured her that the accused would marry her. However, he refused to marry her.It was further argued that dating apps like Bumble are used by people to meet and know each other, and it can't be presumed that their only motive is to engage in casual sex..The court stated that the accused's refusal to marry the woman could not be taken into consideration for the present application..Advocate Namit Saxena appeared for the applicant.Advocate Santosh Kumar appeared for the State.