Madhya Pradesh High Court, Indore: Subodh Abhyankar, J., expressed that, the bane of live-in-relationship is a by-product of the Constitutional guarantee as provided under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
Applicant’s application under Section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 for grant of anticipatory bail as he was apprehending his arrest with regard to an offence punishable under Sections 376(2)(N), 328, 313, 506 and 34 of the Penal Code, 1860.
An FIR was lodged against the applicant alleging that she was friends with the present applicant and came to know him in the year 2016 and used to meet him for the purpose of studies only. However, at one point of time he called her to his room and offered her a drink after which she fell unconscious and committed rape on her.
Once the complainant came to her senses, she saw that her clothes were removed by the applicant and when she asked him about the same, he told her that she has had sexual intercourse with her and had also made a video of the same and if she informed to any other person, he would viral the same.
Subsequently, the applicant kept on committing rape on her with the threat that he would viral her video with him. In the year 2017, it was found that she was pregnant. When the applicant came to know about the pregnancy of the complainant, he forced her to terminate the same and thereafter, he again started having physical relationship with her.
The prosecutrix kept on following the dictates of the present applicant and again got pregnant. The said pregnancy was again aborted. Thereafter, the applicant stopped meeting her and subsequently her father engaged her to a boy, but someone sent the applicant the said information, after which the applicant started harassing her parents, her uncle and her fiancé and his family, by sending messages, photographs and also threatened them that if the prosecutrix marry some other person, he would viral her videos and photographs.
Analysis, Law and Decision
High Court observed that the present matter was not a case where the rape was committed on the pretext of marriage, but a case where the prosecutrix was raped after the applicant spiked her drink and took advantage of her.
As per the case diary and various documents filed by the applicant, the prosecutrix and applicant were having live-in-relationship for quite some time and during the said time, the prosecutrix also got pregnant more than a couple of times and got it terminated under the pressure of the present applicant.
In Court’s opinion, the act of the applicant needed to be viewed seriously as how much stress his acts must have caused to the prosecutrix, her family members as also other persons was not difficult to comprehend.
“…the bane of live-in-relationship is a by-product of Constitutional guarantee as provided under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, engulfing the ethos of Indian society, and promoting promiscuity and lascivious behavior, giving further rise to sexual offences. Those who wanted to exploit this freedom are quick to embrace it but are totally ignorant that it has its own limitations, and does not confer any right on any of the partners to such relationship.”
High Court held that the applicant fell into the above-stated trap and portrayed himself as a victim and assumed that once he had a relationship with the prosecutrix, he could also force himself upon her for the time to come having her photographs and video clips, etc.
Therefore, the custodial interrogation of the applicant was necessary. [Abhishek v. State of M.P., Misc. Criminal Case No. 15851 of 2022, decided on 12-4-2022]
Advocates before the Court:
For the applicant: Yogesh Kumar Gupta, Advocate
For the respondent: Amit Singh Sisodiya, G.S. and O.P. Solanki, Objector