MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court recently dealt with a unusual case, wherein an alleged rape victim herself filed a writ petition seeking to quash the entire criminal proceedings initiated at her behest against a 34-year-old man. She claimed that she has now settled in her life and has been getting panic attacks and has to get treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The bench of Justices Prasanna Varale and Surendra Tavade has quashed the FIR filed against the Borivali-based man under charges of rape and cheating, stating, "Though, normally the person facing proceedings, who is added as accused, approaches this Court for quashing the FIR or the criminal case, in the present case, it is the informant, who is before this Court for quashment of the proceedings in the backdrop of the peculiar circumstances."
The observation was made while hearing the plea filed by one Sanjukta (name changed) seeking to quash the proceedings against the accused.
In her plea, she claimed that she was initially married to a man in 2006 and had a daughter from him. However, due to differences, she parted ways and got divorced in 2013.
Around 2011, the victim met the accused, who helped her get a job in his office. The duo became good friends and based on this closeness, the accused promised to marry the victim and based on this alleged false promise, maintained sexual relations with the victim.
However, later he refused to marry her and this led her to suffer severe depression and in that mental state, she took extreme step of committing suicide. But due to immediate medical assistance she was treated and discharged from the hospital in August 2013.
Sanjukta in her FIR claimed that due to her insistence, the accused did marry her for namesake in a temple but kept avoiding her and even ill-treated her due to which she lodged the present complaint under charges of rape and cheating.
In 2020, the accused had moved a plea before a sessions court seeking discharge, however, the same was rejected. He then sought revision of the said order before the HC and the notice of the proceedings was even served to Sanjukta since she is the complainant.
Upon being served with the notice, Sanjukta claimed to have started getting panic attacks once again due to the PTSD. She accordingly filed an affidavit in the HC stating that she would be filing a writ petition to quash the proceedings and then petitioned Justice Varale's bench.
In her plea, she said that she has moved on in her life and since eight years have already elapsed, she isn't desirous of continuing the proceedings.
"We find considerable merit in the plea filed by Sanjukta stating that pendency of the proceedings would only cause mental disturbance to her and she has decided to adopt the approach of forget and forgive, no fruitful purpose would be served by allowing the continuity of the proceedings, on the contrary, it would adversely affect her as now she is settled in her life," the bench said while quashing the FIR.
