On Thursday (13th February), the Bombay High Court granted bail [pdf] to a man named Mohammed Ajaan Khan, accused of raping a minor girl and impregnating her twice.
According to the judgment copy, the victim was only 16 years old at the time of the crime while Khan was a 22-year-old account. The ordeal lasted 15 months and went on between January 2023 to April 2024.
A First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against the accused based on a police complaint. Mohammed Ajaan Khan was booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 376, 376 (3), 376(2)(n) and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
He had filed a bail application before the Bombay High Court, which was heard by a single-judge Bench of Justice Milind N Jadhav.
The Background of the case
The minor victim knew the accused for 4 years and was in a ‘love relationship’ with him for about 2 years. In her police complaint, she informed that Khan called her to his house ‘under the guise of going on excursion’ but instead forced her to have sex.
The underage girl also stated that she remained silent initially but the cycle of abuse repeated multiple times, ultimately leading to her pregnancy. In November 2023, the victim learnt that she was 8 weeks pregnant. She ultimately had to undergo an abortion/ MTP.
The cycle of abuse continued and the victim became pregnant for the second time in April 2024, leading to another round of abortion.
The accused’s lawyer argued that it was a ‘consensual love relationship,’ which was being given a ‘criminal flavour’ in retrospect. He stated that there was ‘no evidence’ of force or coercion. He also pointed out a delay of 1 year and 3 months in filing FIR after the first pregnancy of the minor victim
The Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) highlighted that the victim was a minor at the time of the incident and that she was lured into the relationship. He argued that the consent of the underage girl would be immaterial in the context of the case.
APP further pointed out that the victim did not file her complaint initially due to immense mental agony, caused by violence and two abortions.
Verdict in the case
Justice Milind N Jadhav, in his order on Thursday (13th February), noted that the victim was a minor while the accused Mohammed Ajaan Khan was an adult.
He observed, “They were known to each other and as per statement of prosecutrix in the FIR and statement recorded before the Medical Officer it is clearly borne out that they both were in a love relationship for the past two years and were in a physical relationship for 15 months prior to filing of FIR despite she being below 18 years of age. This fact gets reinforced due to her categorical admissions and her twin pregnancies and MTPs which followed subsequently.”
“This prima facie shows and reflects that the acts between the parties were consensual in nature. From the record it is seen that she was in love with the Applicant and therefore developed physical relations with him as admitted by her,” Justice Milind N Jadhav further noted.
The Bombay Court granted bail to Mohammed Ajaan Khan, noting no criminal antecedents in the present case and the absence of violence between the parties. It ruled,
“The material placed before me do not indicate towards any force being engaged by Applicant over the prosecutrix during their relationship. The case appears to be consensual in nature that had come to the knowledge of her mother upon prosecutrix becoming pregnant not once, but twice. Applicant has made out a strong case for grant of bail since a boy and girl of similar age group involved in a long standing love relationship by consensus does not make it an offense of a nature to justify his custody, the Applicant is not a sexual predator but a young person who was involved in a consensual relationship which is admitted by the prosecutrix.”
The court stated that both the victim and the accused were of the age to have a reasonable understanding of their conduct. It further pointed out the regressive impact of the jail environment and prior Supreme Court verdicts in the release of young offenders on bail.
While granting the accused bail, Justice Milind N Jadhav imposed several conditions including the deposit of a bond of ₹15000, cooperation during trial, prior permission before leaving Maharashtra and a few others.
