The Thane Sessions Court, presided over by Special Judge D.S. Deshmukh, rejected the bail application of a 39-year-old man accused of allegedly raping his minor stepdaughter. The court observed that the victim's lack of opposition to the man's release indicated that "tampering has already begun." To prevent further tampering with witnesses or evidence, the court denied bail.
"The victim has given no objection to granting bail to the accused. This shows that tampering has started. There is a possibility of tampering with the evidence if the accused is enlarged on bail. In such a backdrop, though the investigation is complete and the charge sheet has been filed, considering the nature of the offense, in my view, this is not a fit case to release the accused on bail ……..There is a strong prima facie case against the accused. The medical examination report supports the prosecution's case, and samples have been sent for DNA analysis, with the report awaited. The victim, aged 15, suffered aggravated sexual assault at the hands of the accused, (here step father), leading to her pregnancy. Therefore, this case falls under the stringent sections of POCSO Act, for which the punishment, as per the amended Act, is not less than 20 years, which may extend to imprisonment for life (meaning for the remainder of the natural life of that person) and shall also be liable to a fine, or with death," the court held.
As per the prosecution's case, the victim was allegedly consistently sexually abused by her stepfather when her mother was at work. Afterward, he threatened her not to disclose the incident to anyone. Due to fear, she did not disclose the incident. The victim was sexually assaulted more than five times.
On December 9, 2024, when the victim's mother performed a pregnancy test, it was positive. Even then, the victim did not tell her mother about the incident. However, on December 19, 2023, the Kashimira police received the pregnancy update from Polio survey officers who had visited the victim’s house to provide a dose and learned of the alleged incident. The officers then informed the police of the girl's pregnancy. Kashimira police visited her house and asked her to come to the police station to lodge a report. Subsequently, a report was lodged.
Meanwhile, the accused, in his application, claimed he was innocent and falsely implicated in the entire case. "According to him, he used to scold the victim if she wandered outside the house at night. Therefore, the victim went to stay with her grandmother. When the fact of the victim's pregnancy was revealed in the polio survey, this offense was lodged. Until that day, neither the victim nor her mother lodged any report against the accused. DNA reports are awaited."
