Punjab & Haryana High Court Grants Anticipatory Bail To Man Accused Of Sharing Wife’s ‘Sexually Explicit Video’ With His Extramarital Partner

Observing that it is not the prosecution's case that the sexually explicit video and photos were "circulated amongst the general public”, the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted anticipatory bail to a man and his extra-marital partner in a case accusing the former of sharing the content in question with the latter.

The man had allegedly prepared the obscene videos and photos of his wife and shared them with his extra-marital partner, who then sent them to the victim on Instagram. The court was hearing the anticipatory bail pleas of the accused-husband and the partner who have been booked under Sections 67, 67-A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 at Police Station Division No.3, Ludhiana.

Justice Gurbir Singh said that the petitioners are entitled to anticipatory bail because the video and photographs “were circulated by [the extra-marital partner] to the complainant’s phone” and “it is not the case of the prosecution that the said photographs or video were circulated amongst the General Public”.

Earlier, the wife had lodged a police case against her husband and in-laws under Sections 406, 498-A IPC at Police Station Women Cell, Ludhiana. She had alleged that the co-accused petitioner was having illicit relations with her husband and her husband had given her "indecent videos and photographs" to his extramarital partner and she was blackmailing and threatening her.

The petitioners submitted that the Inquiry Officer had given a finding earlier that the video was prepared by the complainant herself. The counsel representing the accused woman also said that she "neither published nor transmitted" the video and that as per the prosecution, it was in the mobile phone of complainant's husband.

"She has been unnecessarily dragged in due to matrimonial litigation between the complainant and [her husband]," the counsel said. 

The court noted that after registration of FIR, the IO has formed an opinion that the husband of the complainant prepared the video and photographs in connivance with his extramarital partner. It observed that though notices are stated to have been issued under Section 41 CrPC to the petitioners, there is nothing on record that they were properly served.

Granting pre-arrest bail to the petitioners, the court directed them to join the investigation and hand over their mobile phones to the IO.

Case Title: X v. State of Punjab

Appearance: Varun Chhibba for the petitioner (in CRM-M-10868-2023)

Manmeet Singh Bindra for the petitioner (in CRM-M-20326-2023).

Himani Arora, AAG, Punjab (in both the cases).

Harish Sharma for the complainant (in both the cases)