The Bombay High Court upheld the seven years imprisonment to a godman, who rubbed lemon on a woman's private parts as she wasn't able to get pregnant. The godman had even compelled the woman and her husband to have sex in his presence several times.
A bench of Justice Chandrakant Bhadang was hearing an appeal filed by one Yogesh Kupekar challenging the decision of a sessions court convicting him for rape and under provisions of the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013.
According to the prosecution case, the complainant couple had lodged a case with the Mumbai Police in 2015 alleging that Kupekar sexually abused his wife. It claimed that the couple got married in 2013 and didn't had any kid for the initial two years and then an acquaintance told them about Kupekar.
The couple's acquaintance told them that Kupekar is a devotee of Macchindranath and several devotees were benefited by his grace. The couple accordingly started visiting at Kupekar's residence every Thursday. He promised them that they would be blessed with a child and on their every visit would give them some vibhuti (holi ash) and even chant certain mantras.
The couple alleged that Kupekar forced them to have sex in his presence. They were initially not ready to abide by his command but given their blind faith, they performed sexual activities in front of him on several occasions and he would chant some mantras while seeing them.
On the relevant day, Kupekar visited the couple's house and asked them to again indulge into sexual act. After some time, he asked the husband to go out of the room and then started sexually abusing the woman.
As per the FIR, the godman asked the woman to touch his private parts and then started rubbing lemon on her private parts. He even forced his fingers inside her private parts and by the time her husband came in, he got away from her.
Based on these contentions, the sessions court convicted Kupekar and sentenced him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.
Kupekar, however, claimed that he was falsely implicated in the matter as his wife had earlier filed a police complaint against the victim's husband as he had outraged her modesty.
Justice Joshi having heard the contentions and the evidence on record, said that the testimony of the couple was inspiring confidence and didn't indicate of any falsity on their part.
"It is significant to note that the blind faith of the parties or the victim on the accused is the real driver in such cases. The evidence in such cases has to be appreciated in the context of peculiar circumstances," Justice Joshi said while upholding the conviction.
