BENGALURU: Karnataka HC has granted bail for 16 days to a 23-year-old man arrested under Pocso Act, allowing him to marry an 18-year-old girl he has been accused of raping and with whom he fathered a child when she was a minor.
Treating it as a “peculiar” case, Justice M Nagaprasanna has directed authorities to release petitioner from Mysuru city jail on June 17 so that the couple gets married and their one-year-old child doesn’t “suffer ignominy of any kind”.Accused will have to return to prison on July 3. “Certificate of evidence of marriage should be placed before court on the next date of hearing (July 4). The petitioner should mark his attendance once in a week before the jurisdictional police station,” the judge said in his order. The court explained that “to protect the interest of the child and also the responsibility of the mother in bringing up the child, this direction is found necessary to be issued”.
The girl was 16 years and nine months when her mother registered a case against him on Feb 16, 2023. She had delivered a girl already. The petitioner has been in judicial custody from the day the complaint was registered. Accused had moved HC, seeking quashing of proceedings pending before a special court in Mysuru. The judge noted the petitioner’s counsel and respondents have said the accused and the girl were in love, but their parents opposed it. “The parties are seeking closure of proceedings on account of petitioner’s desire to get married to the girl as she and her child are not left in lurch,” the judge said.