The Bombay High Court, while denying bail to a gang rape accused who had been behind bars for over three years, observed that mere delay in the trial and incarceration for grave offences cannot be grounds for granting bail. The court stated that there is no fixed formula for determining what constitutes “long incarceration.”
The bench, presided over by Justice Madhav Jamdar, expressed shock when an advocate representing the victim and her father consented to the grant of bail to the accused, noting that the conduct of the victim and her father “clearly shows that the accused are influencing the witnesses.”
Both the victim, who was a minor at the time of the incident, and her father were present in court on April 18, when the bench heard the bail plea.
The accused, Somnath Gaikwad, through his lawyer Sana Raees Khan, sought bail on the grounds of long incarceration and delayed trial. Khan submitted that Gaikwad was arrested on October 31, 2020, and there had been little progress in the trial, as charges had not even been framed against the accused.
However, Additional Public Prosecutor Veera Shinde, appearing for the state, argued that this was a grievous case in which a minor girl had been subjected to gang rape, for which the punishment is life imprisonment. Additionally, the accused is charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, under which the minimum punishment is 20 years.
The bench said that “mere delay in the trial pertaining to grave offences, by itself cannot be a ground to enlarge an accused on bail, dehors the facts.” The bench added that in the facts and circumstances of this case, it is absolutely essential to expedite the trial.
The High Court directed the sessions court to complete the trial in the case within nine months and to file periodic reports before the High Court to ensure expeditious conclusion of the trial, noting that “the accused persons are attempting to influence the victim and the witnesses and are also tampering with the evidence.”
WHAT IS THE CASE
The case pertains to an incident where a girl was raped by her friend in October 2020 after leaving her home following an argument with her parents. The accused, Nikhil Shinde, lured her to his residence, where he raped her multiple times before dropping her off at Hadapsar in eastern Pune. He then threatened her not to disclose what had happened.
While trying to find her way home, another accused named Mohan approached her, promising to take her back to her village. Instead, he took her to a house in the Saswad area of Pune, where she was gang-raped by Shinde, his cousins Avinash, and Mohan Gaikwad. They locked her in a room to prevent her from escaping.
After spending two days in captivity, the girl managed to escape and sought help from a resident of another city before reaching the Saswad police station.
Source Agencies
