'Serious Offence, Victim An Innocent 14-Year-Old Girl': Allahabad High Court Denies Bail To Gang-Rape Accused

A bench of Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav rejected his bail plea, emphasizing that the victim is an 'innocent' 14-year-old girl and that the alleged offence committed by the applicant is of a very serious and heinous nature towards the society.

The accused, booked under Sections 376DA, 506 IPC, Section 5g/6 POCSO Act and Section 67B IT Act, along with three others, allegedly forced the victim to remove her cloth; they raped her and made a video of the crime and later made it viral.

Seeking bail in the case, the applicant-accused moved the HC, wherein his counsel argued that his client was innocent and had been falsely implicated in the case. His counsel also contended that the FIR in question had been lodged with a delay of 22 days, for which the prosecution had given no proper explanation.

It was also argued that the victim's statement under Section 164 and the FIR was not uniform. The applicant had no connection to the matter in question, and thus, he should be released on bail.

On the other hand, counsel present on behalf of the High Court Legal Service Committee stated that the applicant, along with other co-accused, had been accused of raping the 14-year-old victim and making a video of the gang-rape viral. It was also submitted that they even threatened to kill her.

Against the backdrop of these submissions, the Court took into account the allegations against the accused and the submission that a video CD of the alleged gang rape incident, recorded by the accused, had been included in the case diary by the investigator.

The court also factored in that the case diary mentions that the statements of the victim under Sections 161 and 164 of the CrPC, the statements of an independent witness, and the accused Sevaram's statement from his mobile phone have been used as evidence and based on the evidence collected, including the viral video, the case had been filed under Section 67 of the IT Act.

Given this, noting that the victim is an innocent girl of 14 years, the Court denied bail to the accused. Before parting with the order, the Single Judge directed the trial court to dispose of the case in question within one year.

Case title - Halkaee Ahirwar vs. State Of U.P. And 3 Others

Case citation:

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