1. The petitioner herein is craving for bail consequent upon his arrest on 25.04.2018 in FIR No. 02/2018 registered in Police Station Keran, Kupwara for commission of offence under Sections 376, 506 RPC, and is facing trial at present in the court of Principal Sessions Judge, Kupwara.

2. An application for grant of bail moved earlier before the court of learned Principal Sessions Judge, Kupwara has been rejected by the said court vide order dated 31.12.2018 while making the observations that:—

“the allegations against the applicant/accused, in brief are that having committed rape on the prosecutrix, he threatened her to do away with her life, in case she would disclose about the same to the family members. Further that on account of aforesaid rape, the prosecutrix became pregnant and later on she delivered a baby.

Admittedly, the DNA report is negative as it has been mentioned in the result of examination that DNA profile of baby was not found to be consistent as biological child of Parvez Ahmed Lone but to my mind merely in the basis of the aforesaid report it cannot be said at this stage of the case that the aforesaid allegation of rape against the applicant/accused is untrue. The aforesaid DNA report is yet to be scrutinized during the course of trial of the case. As noticed earlier that the prosecutrix has categorically stated during the course of her statement recorded under Section 164-A Cr.PC that the accused had committed rape on her.

To my mind, there are reasonable grounds for believing at this stage of the case that the accusations against the applicant/accused is prima facie true, as such, in view of the proviso appended to Section 497-C Cr.PC, the accused is not entitled to be released on bail at this stage of the case.”

3. On perusal of the petition and the status report filed by the respondents, it is clear that the investigating agency/prosecution has laid edifice of the case on the set of allegations as were levelled against the petitioner herein in terms of FIR No.02/2018 lodged by the first informant, father of the alleged prosecutrix, before the police station, Keran, Kupwara on 05.04.2018.

4. On registration of the case, the Investigating Officer examined the witnesses including the alleged prosecutrix who had been produced before the learned Magistrate on 04.05.2018. In her statement she had portrayed the accusations against the petitioner herein as:—

“that the accused/petitioner herein entered the house of the prosecutrix, when she was alone there, and asked for glass of water. After drinking the water, accused/petitioner gave the glass back to the prosecutrix and in the process he caught hold from her back and torn her clothes, thereafter raped her forcibly. After the said occurrence, he threatened to kill her in case she deposed the same to anybody in the family. In the meantime she remained pregnant and after the period of nine months delivered a male baby.”

5. The final report(challan) has been submitted before the learned Magistrate who committed it to the Sessions court. The conclusion of the investigation has been summed up by the Investigating officer as:—

“that during the course of investigation the Investigating officer proceeded to the spot and found the victim has delivered a male baby and statement of the victim was recorded u/s 161 Cr.PC. In her statement, the victim had deposed that her father is a handicapped person and her mother being laywoman and due to poverty her parents often remained out of home in connection with livelihood and she always remained alone at home. Taking advantage of her loneliness the accused/petitioner herein often visited her home and forcibly subjected her to illicit intercourse and threatened her if she disclose the same she will be killed. Resultantly she did not disclose the same to anybody and during this time the accused continuously assaulted her sexually, due to which she became pregnant. The victim had requested the accused to marry her keeping in v