Court grants anticipatory bail to woman after ‘lesbian ex-lover’ files case against her

The court granted anticipatory bail to the accused woman. (Express Photo by Pradeep Kocharekar)

The Bombay High Court recently granted anticipatory bail to a married woman who was in a sexual relationship with another woman, who is the complainant in the case. The relationship between the two women had allegedly soured and the complainant had filed a breach of trust case against the married woman.

Observing that the women were in a lesbian relationship, which turned into “extreme enmity”, the court said that the FIR filed by the complainant was motivated and therefore could not come in the way of the accused woman’s personal liberty.

The court was hearing an appeal by the complainant against an anticipatory bail application filed by the married woman, who was charged under the Indian Penal Code, the Information and Technology Act and under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The two women met each other on April 18, 1997, and became friends. Gradually, their intimacy deepened and they entered into a lesbian relationship, the court observed. The complainant told the police that the woman had promised to marry her after divorcing her husband. In WhatSApp conversations, the complainant referred to the woman as her “beautiful wife to whom she always loves”.

According to the complainant, she was passing by the accused woman’s mother’s house in Vile Parle on December 11, 2016, when she saw her with her husband and daughters.

The complainant said she requested the women to return her belongings, but she and her husband allegedly abused and assaulted her. After this alleged incident, the complainant wrote letters to Vile Parle and Santacruz police stations. The complainant made her first statement to police on January 24, 2017, in which she had accused the woman of committing “breach of trust by having sexual relations with her husband and others”.

On March 20, 2017, the complainant gave her supplementary statement that in December, 2016, the woman and her husband not only beat her but also used casteist slurs. The accused woman then filed a cross FIR against the complainant in January 2017. Justice A M Badar observed that the history of cross FIRs and the version of complaints show that both of them “were in a lesbian relationship with each other, are totally hostile to each other, and now their relationship has turned into extreme enmity between both of them”.

Justice Badar observed that the accused woman has “committed breach of trust” of complainant by “indulging in sexual relationship with other persons, despite being in a relationship with her”. The order said, “How such a relationship is legal is a question which need not be considered in this application, but suffice to state that the first version of the respondent no.2/First Informant (complainant woman) is not containing any averments relating to commission of offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, by the appellant/accused (accused woman).”

The court granted anticipatory bail to the accused woman and said, “Taking over all review of the matter, it is seen that the FIR came to be lodged only because the relationship between the appellant/accused and the respondent no.2/First Informant turned sour, as according to the respondent no.2/First Informant, the appellant/accused had lost her interest in that relationship. Viewed from this angle, the FIR seems to be motivated and as such cannot come in the way of enjoyment of personal liberty by the appellant/accused.”