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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

BAIL APPLICATION NO. 1037 of 2021

Maaz Rasool Khan

..

Applicant

Versus

The State of Maharashtra

..

Respondent

…

Mr. Gaurav Bhawnani for the applicant in BA No. 1037/2021.

Mrs.Anjali Awasthi for the complainant.

Mr.S.H.Yadav, APP for the State.

CORAM: BHARATI DANGRE, J.

DATED : 11^th NOVEMBER, 2022

P.C:-

1

Heard Advocate Gaurav Bhawnani for the applicant,

Advocate Anjali Awasthi for the complainant and learned APP

Mr.Yadav for the State.

2

The applicant is a young lad, aged 20 years, who is

charged for the offence punishable u/s.354D, 376(2)(i), 506 IPC,

Section 4, 8 and 12 of the POCSO Act and Section 43A, 66C and

67B of the Information Technology Act, 2000, in connection

with the C.R registered in the year 2020, at the behest of the

prosecutrix, a minor girl. He came to be arrested on 20/5/2020.

On completion of investigation, the charge-sheet came to be filed

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on 15/8/2020 before the Special Court. On his second Bail

Application being rejected by the Special Court on 5/2/2021, he

has approached this Court.

3

The prosecutrix, a minor, reported to the concerned

police station on 18/5/2020 and narrated that in the year 2016,

she was acquainted with the applicant, aged 20 years through

social media – ‘Facebook’ while she was pursuing her education in

9^th Std. She reported that she was using the mobile phone of her

mother and she used to chat with him on Instagram and

Whatsapp. After the virtual acquaintance, they met in reality and

as per her version, she used to visit him at the places indicated by

him and by missing her tuition, she maintained the

appointments. She narrate that the applicant assured her that he

will marry her and he took various pictures of them together and

some of them were in scanty clothes. According to her, he also

asked for her nude photographs and trusting him, he forwarded

the same on his Whatsapp. In the year 2017, he physically

indulged with her at her house, on the pretext of marriage, when

nobody was present, but she was unable to recollect the date of

the incident.

4

As per the complaint, her mother was informed by

the teacher about she missing the Classes and therefore, the

mother confronted her and directed her not to maintain any

contact with the applicant. In the year 2018, when she disclosed

the applicant the scenario, he stopped calling her. After 6 – 7

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months, once again, they started meeting each other clandestinely,

but he started suspecting that she was carrying an affair with some

other boy. Therefore, he forwarded messages to her sister that she

was roaming with her friends and therefore, her sister confronted

her. She got agitated and discontinued the relationship. When

he threatened her that he would make the pictures in his

possession, viral, she started avoiding him but was threatened by

the applicant and he denied the accusation. However, she did not

maintain any contact with the applicant since 2018 to March

2020.

On 12/3/2020, she came to know that the applicant

had shared some intimate photographs taken together and her

sister disclosed this to the family members. When she questioned

the applicant, she was told that somebody had prepared a fake ID

and through this, the photographs were uploaded. When she

reported to the police station, she conceded to the position that

she had forwarded her nude photographs to the applicant, but she

did not lodge a complaint, but on coming to know that some

photographs have been made viral, which had shown her in

scanty clothes, she lodged a complaint, appre