Delhi High Court cancels bail of man accused of raping woman suffering from bipolar disorder

The Delhi High Court on Friday cancelled the bail of a man accused of raping a mentally-challenged 37-year-old woman suffering from bipolar mental disorder, episodic mania and psychotic features [X v State (NCT of Dellhi) and Anr]..Justice Mukta Gupta held that the offence was serious in nature and Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) who granted bail, had failed to note the fact that the statement of the prosecutrix was yet to be recorded therefore the order granting bail suffered from gross-illegality..The High Court said that the lower court even failed to note that the accused lives in the vicinity of the woman and is likely to influence her by luring or intimidation.“Considering the fact that the impugned order granting bail to the respondent No.2 suffers from gross-illegality as the learned ASJ totally ignored the statement of the prosecutrix recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C., the seriousness of the offence, that the statement of the prosecutrix is still to be recorded before the learned Trial Court, and that the respondent No.2 is living in the vicinity of the prosecutrix and is thus likely to influence the prosecutrix by luring her again and/or intimidating her, the impugned order dated 7 th September, 2021 is set aside. The bail granted to the respondent No.2 is cancelled. Respondent No.2 will surrender to custody within one week,” the single-judge's order said..It was alleged that the man, identified as Shiva alias Prabhakhar Sharma, took advantage of the fact that the woman's marriage was in a bad state as divorce proceedings were going on. He had befriended her in July last year and told her that the soul of a black dog vests in her, and that he will get her relieved of it.The woman asked him to take her to Vaishno Devi and get her married. Shiva took her to Nainital where he established forceful sexual relations by fooling her into believing that they had got married just by putting vermillion on her forehead.He recorded some videos and threatened her to not reveal the incidents to anyone..The ASJ had held that the videos recorded showed that the prosecutrix was conscious, oriented and aware of the nature of the act, and can be seen voluntarily accompanying the accused and it did not appear that her consent was vitiated by any mental disease.The lower court order had noted that the bipolar disorder does not permanently affect the mental status of the person concerned and the person returns to normalcy after the attack. The lowed court had also taken note of an ‘unexplained and unjustified delay’ of seven days in reporting of the matter to the police while granting bail..The High Court, however, held that a complaint was recorded by woman’s parents on the very day that she went missing and it was on this complaint that the police went to Nainital and brought them back to Delhi, therefore there was no delay in reporting the matter to the police even if the FIR was registered later on.“In her statement recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. she has clearly stated the manner in which the respondent No.2 lured her, that he will get her married to a good boy and then performed sexual relationship after intoxicating her by giving fanta and frooti. While granting bail to the respondent No.2, the learned Additional Sessions Judge totally ignored the statement of the prosecutrix recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. and also history noted in the MLC on 23rd July, 2021 itself,” the High Court noted. It further stated that Shiva made the woman believe that she had got married merely by putting vermillion on her head and the fact that the videos where he is threatening the woman’s brother clearly showed his malafide intent.“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, the respondent No.2 took her to Nainital where he performed sexual relationship by giving intoxicants in the cold drinks. The learned 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 Court said. .It, therefore, set aside the order granting bail, and directed the accused to surrender within a week..Advocates Shreeyash U Lalit and Tarun Narang appeared for the petitioner while the State was represented by Additional Public Prosecutor Ravi Nayak. Advocate Abhay Kumar appeared for Shiva..[Read Judgment]