A Botad sessions court Monday granted anticipatory bail to a 27-year-old practising advocate whose wife has accused him of rape. “.considering the marital status of the accused and the complainant, it would vanish all possibilities of reunion if the accused is arrested. Therefore, protection against the arrest may also be given to the accused,” the court held in its order. The couple got married in April and the FIR was lodged on July 1. Additional sessions judge Dharmendrasinh Gemalsinh Rana noted that the complainant wife, aged 30, had registered several complaints with details of the alleged offence prior to the registration of the FIR and that the police had conducted preliminary inquiry and had treated the complaint as an application pertaining to matrimonial dispute. The FIR was lodged following the direction of a magistrate court after the complainant filed an application making similar allegations before the District Legal Services Authority of Botad. The complainant had alleged that she was compelled to get married to the accused after he established a physical relationship with her prior to their marriage and then threatened her with making her photos and videos viral if the complainant did not marry him. Advocate Arjundev Zala, on behalf of the accused, had submitted before the court that the complainant is a major, that CrPC does not criminalise marital rape and that despite the statutory position, the police had turned a blind eye over the admitted fact that the complainant and the accused were legally married adults before charging the accused with IPC section 376 (2) (n) on committing repeated rape on the same woman.
