Allahabad High Court.
Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh: In a recent judgement, the Allahabad High Court said that a woman had “invited trouble” for herself and was responsible for being allegedly raped in 2024.
While granting bail to the accused, identified as Nischal Chandak, Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh remarked that even if the woman’s allegation is accepted as true, “it can also be concluded that she herself invited trouble and was also responsible for the same,” quoted Bar and Bench.
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In September 2024, the woman, a student of a famous Noida-based university, had gone to a Delhi bar with her three female friends. She claimed that in the bar, she met some male acquaintances, one of whom was the accused.
In her complaint to the Noida Police, the survivor alleged that as she was intoxicated, the accused got closer to her. After staying at the bar till 3 am, the accused allegedly kept asking her to come with her.
After his insistence, the woman said she agreed to go with him to his house “to rest”. She alleged that the accused kept touching her inappropriately while they were on their way. Instead of taking her to his place in Noida, Chandak took her to a relative’s flat in Gurgaon, where he raped her, she told the police.
The woman filed a first information report (FIR) at a Noida police station, and the Chandak was arrested on December 11, 2024.
The accused, in his bail plea, told the court that the woman required support and had herself agreed to go to his place and take rest. He denied allegations of taking her to his relative’s place and raping her. The accused claimed that the two had consensual sex, and it wasn’t rape.
Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court stated that since the woman is a postgraduate student, she was competent enough to understand the “morality and significance of her act”.
The order also added that the woman’s medical examination stated that “her hymen was found torn, but the doctor did not give any opinion about the sexual assault”.
“Considering the facts and circumstances of the case as well as keeping in view the nature of the offence, evidence, complicity of the accused and submissions of the learnt counsel for the parties, I am of the view that the applicant has made out a fit case for bail,” observed the court.
