RAVI KRISHNA NAIDU Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD the learned counsel for the applicant and the learned A.P.P. for the State. I have also granted leave to the counsel for the complainant to appear in the matter and heard him.

(2.) THE applicant seeks pre-arrest bail under section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in connection with an offence registered with Wanwadi Police Station, Pune under C.R. No.559/2007 for the alleged offence punishable under sections 341, 363, 366A, 354, 376, 506 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

(3.) THE complainant is a young girl though admittedly above 16 years of age. On 25th December 2007, the complainant lodged a First Information Report (FIR) with Wanwadi Police Station, Pune alleging the offence. According to the complainant, on 30th March 2007, she was taken to the farm house of the applicant at Sopanbag, Ghodpadi, Pune by her maternal uncle. The purpose of visit was that the complainant was previously told by the applicant that she would be given a role of an actress in a cinema. The applicant took her to the first floor under the pretext of a screen test. There, the complainant was raped against her wish by the applicant while her maternal uncle was sitting on the ground floor. The complainant then came on the ground floor and narrated the incident to her uncle who told her not to complain and not to disclose the incident even to her mother. On the next day, the complainant accompanied the applicant to his flat in Vinit Tower Society, Juhu, Mumbai. The applicant returned from work at 8.30 p.m. and took the complainant for dinner in a hotel "Taba" at Juhu Link Road. After they returned home, the complainant slept in the room of the applicant where she was again raped. In the similar manner she was raped for 4 days during day and night on 7-8 occasions. The FIR is silent what happened between first week of April 2007 and the last week of July 2007. In the FIR, the complainant then stated that on 28th July 2007, she and the applicant went to Hyderabad and stayed in a bungalow of Rishi at Road No.12, Opp. the house of Ram Gopal Verma. The air ticket for travel to Hyderabad was purchased showing the name of the complainant as Rekha Ravi Naidu, i.e. wife of the applicant. It is alleged that even at Hyderabad, she was subjected to forcible intercourse. In the FIR, the complainant has further alleged that after they returned to Mumbai, in the first week of August 2007 some other persons also attempted to act fresh with her but she resisted. The complainant has stated that she then stayed together with the applicant till the conclusion of the Ganpati festival (September 2007) and during that time also, the applicant had forcible intercourse with her on several occasions. In the last paragraph of the FIR, the complainant has alleged that the applicant had intercourse with her by deceiving her that she would be given a role of an actress in a cinema.