The court said freedom of speech should be exercised “rationally and in an orderly manner for fair and constructive criticism”. (File)THE BOMBAY High Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to an Indian Army Major in connection with the rape case registered against him at the DN Nagar police station in July. The Major had approached the HC after a lower court had rejected his anticipatory bail application.
The court, however, asked the Major to submit his laptop and mobile phone to the police station and present himself before the investigating officer of the case every Saturday for four weeks.
An FIR had been registered at the DN Nagar police station against the Major on charges of rape, unnatural offences, cheating among other sections on July 14. As per the complainant, she had come in contact with the Major through an app in August 2018. In January last year, the Major came to the city and expressed his desire to marry the victim. Following this, the complainant said, they maintained a physical relationship and she also went through an abortion.
The counsel for the Major told the court that in January this year when there was a proposal for marriage from his client, the complainant found some objectionable photographs of another woman in his mobile phone. The counsel said the woman then approached the police and an FIR was registered on July 14.
The victim’s counsel told the high court that the accused was in the habit of maintaining relationships with women using his position as a Major, however, said no one had come forward with such a complaint so far.
The court said prima facie it seemed “the complaint is a result of an emotional outburst of the complainant based on the presumption that the applicant is maintaining a physical relationship with another girl”. The court observed that if the allegations made by the victim’s counsel were true, “the other girls would have lodged complaints”.
The HC said, “Custodial interrogation of the applicant [the Major] not being necessary at this stage and with the stipulation that the applicant will cooperate with the investigation… he is entitled to be released on bail in the event of his arrest.”