SIVADASAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The applicant herein has been arrayed as the sole accused in Crime No.262/1998 of Alathur Police Station, registered for offences punishable under Sec.376 and 506(i) of the I.P.C . on the basis of the FI statement of the lady victim.

(2.) The prosecution case in short is that on 2.2.1998 at about 5.30 p.m. at Koramparambu, the petitioner accused had criminally intimidated and raped the lady victim and thereafter on several occasions, the accused had sexual intercourse with her by assuring that he would marry her and thereby, the petitioner is said to have committed the abovesaid offences.

(3.) According to the petitioner, the abovesaid allegations are false and baseless and that as a matter of fact, there was an intense love affair between the petitioner and the lady defacto complainant, which was stiffly opposed by her family members and later, they started living together as husband and wife and their marriage was solemnized on 27.6.2003 as per the customary rites of their community concerned, as evident from Anx.I certificate dated 30.9.2019. That later, the spouses started living together in Bangalore and they have two children in their wedlock. That the petitioner was under the bona fide impression that the abovesaid criminal proceedings would have been closed by the Police as the parties had married and as the petitioner, the lady defacto complainant and their children were settled in Bangalore, they were not further aware that the case was in any manner pending. That recently, when the petitioner came to his native place, he was arrested on 20.9.2019 and remanded to judicial custody, presumably on the ground that non- bailable warrant in relation to the said case is pending. It appears that the Police after investigation has filed the final report/charge sheet in this case, which initially led to the pendency of the committal proceedings in C.P.No.10/2000 on the Judicial First Class Magistrate's Court-I, Alathur, and as the petitioner was not available, he was treated as absconding accused and the case was transferred to the register of long pending cases, as L.P.No. 81/2005 on the file of the abovesaid court. It appears that the case now been renumbered as committal proceedings case, C.P.No.56/2019 on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate's Court-I, Alathur. As mentioned herein earlier, the petitioner's application for regular bail has now been dismissed as per Anx. H order dated 27.9.2019 rendered by the Judicial First Class Magistrate's Court-I, Alathur, on Crl.M.P.No. 10610/2019 in C.P.No. 56/2019.