Bail to man accused of raping bipolar woman cancelled

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday cancelled the bail granted to a man accused of raping a woman suffering from bipolar disorder. The accused has allegedly lured her on the pretext that there was an evil spirit of a dog in her body that needed to be removed by an occultist.

Justice Mukta Gupta set aside the bail granted by the trial court and said the accused lives in the vicinity of the victim and is likely to intimidate or influence her again. The judge, who was dealing with a challenge to the bail order filed by the father of the victim, directed the accused to surrender within a week and observed that the trial court order suffered from “gross illegality” as it ignored the woman’s statement given to the magistrate, the seriousness of the offence and the fact that her statement was yet to be recorded for trial.

“The impugned order dated 7th September, 2021 is set aside. The bail granted to respondent no.2 (accused) is cancelled. Respondent no.2 will surrender to custody within one week,” the court ordered. The prosecutrix, a 37-year-old woman who suffered from bipolar disorder and was going through a divorce, was taken to Nainital instead of Vaishno Devi by the accused who put vermilion on her head to make her believe that they were married and then forced himself on her.

Tthe trial court had said bipolar disorder did not permanently affect the mental status and a video of the accused and the prosecutrix prima facie showed that the woman was conscious, oriented and aware of the nature of the act and that she could be seen voluntarily accompanying the accused.

Justice Gupta opined that the 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 also categorised the parents of the prosecutrix as “aggrieved persons.”