SHAHIN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein is the sole accused in Crime No.420/2016 of the Kasaba Police Station, registered under Sections 376 and 506(i) of the Indian Penal Code. This is his third application for regular bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. His first application was dismissed by this Court on 2.11.2016 and the second application was dismissed on 16.11.2016. The petitioner has been in judicial custody since 20.9.2016.

(2.) The victim of offence in this case is a lady aged 29 years. The petitioner is a person having wife and children. When the victim made a matrimonial advertisement for a marriage long back, the petitioner responded, and made a promise that he would marry her. He thus developed intimacy under such promise and used to contact her at many places thereafter. By March, 2015, he gained her confidence, and thinking that she could be exploited sexually he asked her to come to a safe place at Kozhikode. It is alleged that she was accordingly taken to a lodge, where she was subjected to sexual intercourse by force by the petitioner. The fact that he is a person having wife and children was suppressed by him and the victim was thus cheated by him. Later she came to know that he has wife and children, and when she tried to contact him, he conveniently escaped and retracted from the promise.

(3.) This application for regular bail is opposed by the learned Public Prosecutor on the ground that investigation is still in progress, and that if the accused is now released, he will definitely obstruct the investigation.