Rape accused gets 1-month bail to marry survivor

CUTTACK: Orissa high court has granted a 26-year-old rape accused one-month bail to marry a 22-year-old woman he is accused of raping when she was 16, observing that their relationship was consensual, not forced or exploitative.

"The allegations, though serious in their statutory framing, arise out of a consensual relationship between two individuals who are very close in age and shared a personal bond prior to the filing of the present case," Justice S K Panigrahi said in the bail order uploaded on Monday. The man was jailed under Pocso Act in 2023 on the woman's complaint that he had maintained physical relationship with her since 2019 on the promise of marriage. She complained that she had become pregnant twice in 2020 and 2022, and both times he forced her to terminate the pregnancy.

The man had recently moved court for interim bail, claiming that his and the woman's families have agreed that the petitioner should marry the complainant. "The petitioner has expressed his consent to this arrangement and has undertaken to solemnize the marriage upon his release," the man's lawyer told the court.

The court noted, "The possibility of reconciliation, the familial understanding now reached, and the future prospects of both parties further tilt the balance in favour of extending temporary liberty without compromising the integrity of the ongoing investigation or the dignity of the prosecutrix."