New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has granted anticipatory bail to a 20-year-old student accused of raping his college professor, saying that the prosecutrix, a mature married woman of 35 years, was in a relationship with him for more than a year and was well aware of the repercussions of entering into relationship with someone who was not of marital age yet.
Justice Saurabh Banerjee observed that it prima facie seemed that the woman, who was “certainly highly educationally qualified” and gainfully employed as a professor in a reputed university in Gurgaon, “out of her own sweet will voluntarily chose to proceed with the (bail) applicant with open eyes, open ears and an open mind”.
The court said the material available before it showed “the love, care and affection, the prosecutrix had for the applicant” and the accused, who has clear antecedents, satisfied the parameters for grant of anticipatory bail.
“This court cannot be oblivious of the fact that the prosecutrix herein, admittedly, being a fully grown up matured adult lady aged around 35 years, who at the time of coming in contact (and entering into a relationship) with the applicant herein, was a young boy aged less than around 20 years. It is also not in dispute that the prosecutrix was already married to her ex-husband, however was undergoing divorce,” the court said in a recent order.
“It would not be wrong for this court to conclude at this stage that the prosecutrix was/ is someone who is having more than average intelligence and who was/ is well aware of the rights of a married woman and that the applicant had not reached marital age yet,” It said.