Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 25: Fast Track Court Srinagar presided over by Tahir Khurshid Raina, 2nd Additional Sessions Judge has denied bail to the rapist Mehraj-ud-Din Dar whose obnoxious act led to birth of an illegitimate child.
During the course of proceedings, counsel for the accused took the plea that issue of minority of the prosecutrix is full of doubt and there are contradictions in the statements of prosecutrix, her father and mother. “The right to life and liberty of the accused stand violated on account of his continuous incarnation”, he added.
However, court observed, “so far as issue of minority is concerned, the school certificate enclosed with the chargesheet clearly shows her minor on the date of occurrence of incident. So far as DNA report is concerned, it’s the offence of rape for which accused is being tried and not paternity of the child where in DNA report has any impact”.
“The whole evidence has to be considered including that of prosecutrix who is the star witness of the case while deciding the bail application of the accused in the offence of rape”, the court said, adding “when statement of prosecutrix quite clearly talks about the commission of offence of rape with her by the accused negative results of the test is not going to change the complexion of charge of rape”.
Referring to Delhi High Court judgment in case titled “Suleiman Ahamdi Vs State”, the court declared the arguments of counsel for the accused as un-sustained. On the ground of contradictions in statements, court observed, “this is not the stage to appreciate the intrinsic quality of evidence , rather it’s the prima facie view of evidence to be considered for grant or refusal of bail to the accused”.
“As the prosecutrix who is the star witness of the case has clearly and unambiguously targeted the accused for commission of rape with her, that is sufficient to decide bail application”, the court said, adding “in view of bar on bail as contained in Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013 , bail is required to be rejected when there is prima facie evidence against him”.
While addressing the argument of counsel for accused that right to life and liberty of the accused is being violated by his continuous incarnation and amounts to pre trial conviction and punishment, court observed, “this right though quite sacrosanct can be taken over by a procedure established by law. When the whole society is concerned about the rise in crime against women, courts have to play an equally important role in curbing this menace and therefore a bold message to perpetrators of such crime is required to be given to ensure a safe and secured space to the women folk to grow to their fullest”.
With these observations, court rejected the bail application of the accused.
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