The court granted bail based on significant delays in reporting the incident and lack of medical evidence, raising doubts about the prosecution's case.

JUDGMENT :

[MILIND N. JADHAV, J.]

1. This Application is made under Section 439 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 seeking regular bail in connection with C.R. No.324/2024 registered with Parksite Police Station for offences under Section 376(2)(i), 376 and 506 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 along with Section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012.

2. Notice to the Respondent No.2 – Victim was issued previously by another bench of this court and subsequently Ms. Kanchan Chandak came to be appointed as Legal Aid Counsel to espouse the cause of the victim and thus I have taken up the matter for hearing of 30.01.2025. The matter is fully heard in my chamber considering the facts and sensitivity of the issue.

3. The prosecution story stated in the FIR is that sometime in the month of May 2023 when the victim was residing with her parents and her mother was admitted to a hospital, the victim woke up to the traumatic realisation of being naked and being sexually assaulted by digital penetration by her father. It is stated that the Applicant – Accused used force of threat and violence to ensure the silence of the victim both in the short and long run.

4. Mr. Rao, learned Advocate for Applicant would at the outset submit that proceedings initiated against the Applicant are vexatious in nature and done in order to abuse the process of law. He would submit that facts would show that victim’s mother and grandparents have tutored her to narrate a concocted story curated by them for their ulterior motives. He would submit that there are underlying disputes between Applicant and his wife which are inter – alia due to her extra – marital relationship and hence his wife is using their daughter as a leverage to secure her interests as Applicant is an impediment to the illicit relationship. He would further submit that the Applicant and victim has had strained relations since her childhood which got amplified when he refused to entertain a male friend of the victim in his residence. In order to rebel against the said incident she joined forces with her mother and acceded to her demand in order to implicate the Applicant.

4.1. He would draw my attention to the aspect of delay in filing the FIR which is writ large on the face of record and submit that the FIR has been filed after a delay of almost one year since the date / time of alleged incident, which is not even specified in the FIR. He would submit that such long delay is carefully thought out in order to refute the fact of absence of any sexual assault marks. He would state that every shred of material in support of the case of the victim has been curated later in time and only after filing of the FIR in order to make up an arguable case in order to falsely implicate the Applicant.

4.2. He would draw my attention to the FIR which is filed on 12.04.2024 to submit that the date of the alleged incident is sometime around in the month of May 2023, as alleged therein, a delay of 11 months post the alleged incident. He would submit that as per the statement of victim’s mother, she gained knowledge about the alleged crime on 24.02.2023 which is after a span of 9 months had elapsed and for such a long period of time the behavior of the victim went unnoticed. It was only thereafter that the victim’s mother after discussing the incident with her parents i.e. the maternal grandparents of the victim after two months thereafter which she persuaded the victim to file the FIR on 12.04.2024 – a delay of about 45 days after gaining knowledge of the incident. He would submit that even if the long delay on the part of victim could be attributed to the trauma she may have experienced (which was only sufficient to delay the filing of FIR but to go unnoticed for a period of a year) due to the alleged incident, the silence on the part of her mother for a further period of two months was inexplicable. He would submit that the delay both on behalf of the victim and her mother points to the probability th