A sessions court in Mumbai has granted bail to a 19-year-old student accused by his teenage cousin of touching her inappropriately when she was staying at his residence where her mother had left her.
The victim has accused the boy’s father of raping her and made allegations of sexual assault on two others as well. The court in its order while granting him bail stated that presently the victim is staying at an orphanage and not living with the accused. “No doubt very serious allegations of committing rape is made against the co-accused in the matter. But the record prima facie reveals that the allegations against the present applicant are of molestation exclusively,” it said.
Special judge under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act HC Shende also considered his age, the period of one and a half months he had already undergone in prison and that he is a student and that no serious allegations of rape against the minor have been made against him. It granted him bail by imposing strict conditions.
The applicant’s advocate Bharat Manghani had argued that the girl had lodged the complaint after a delay of three months and that it was a false and concocted story against the men of the family. He alleged she had an affair with youth that her uncle was against it.
