3 min readMumbaiMay 19, 2014 01:36 AM IST
First published on: May 19, 2014 at 01:36 AM IST
The Bombay High Court earlier this month granted bail to a Delhi-based man against whom charges of repeated rape and cheating were levelled by a woman in her 20s. She had moved from Delhi to the city and enrolled herself in a course with an acting school.
While the woman alleged she was threatened by him to force her sister into prostitution, the man claimed he paid Rs 3 lakh for the woman’s admission in the acting school.
The woman, who has been living in Mumbai from January last year, told Justice Revati Mohite Dere that she met Nitin Chawla at a night club in Delhi in April 2011, and their friendship turned into a ‘love affair’. The woman also claimed that the man, without disclosing his marital status had shown interest in marrying her.
The woman told the court that she was in a relationship with Chawla but later learnt he was married when Chawla had confided in her about his marriage being ‘on the rocks’ and considered getting a divorce from his wife.
She started distancing herself from Chawla after finding out that he had two children. She even moved to the city thinking of building a career in acting.
Her ordeal, she alleged, had not ended as Chawla met her and sexually assaulted her in October, 2013.
The woman claimed that she was silent on the issue as he had threatened to hamper her father’s job.
In April this year, he forged her signature and issued a cheque from her bank account to an unknown person, she alleged.
Acting on the woman’s complaint, the Dindoshi police booked Chawla under Sections 376 (2) (n) (raping a woman repeatedly) 420 (cheating) 468 (forgery) and other relevant sections of the IPC.
Chawla, on the contrary, contended that the woman was a major and it was a matter of consensual sex. He had also paid the woman’s admission fee. His lawyer argued that since the day of his arrest in April 11, 2014, he has been in custody.
Justice Dere, after considering the ‘peculiar facts’ of the case, observed that the woman had herself made a statement that she had been in a relationship with Chawla. While releasing him on bail on May 9, the court asked Chawla to furnish a personal bond of Rs 15,000.
“The applicant (Chawla) shall not enter the jurisdiction of Versova police station and Dindoshi police station and shall not attempt to contact/influence the prosecutrix (woman) or any witness concerned with the case,” directed Justice Dere.
aamir.khan@expressindia.com
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