The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently denied bail to Hashim, who is accused of raping a girl from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community while impersonating himself as a Hindu.
The bench of Justice Anil Verma also stated that such offences are on the rise and pose a threat to communal harmony in society.
According to the Prosecution’s case, the prosecutrix knew the accused one year prior to the incident, but she was unaware of his actual religion. In fact, the accused pretended to be a Hindu and befriended her.
On August 27, 2022, the accused proposed to her and stated that they should go and live in Delhi; thus, under the guise of marriage, the prosecutrix travelled to Delhi with him, where he allegedly raped her.
Following that, the accused brought the prosecutrix to Dargah, where she learned that the applicant’s real name is Mohammad Hasim and he is a Muslim. The accused also put the prosecutrix under pressure to convert to the Muslim religion.
She then returned to Indore and filed a FIR against the accused for an offence punishable under sections 376, 376(2) of the IPC, and Section 3(20)(5) of the SC/ST Act.
He was arrested on September 2, 2022, and has been detained since. In order to obtain bail in the case, the accused filed an instant plea in the High Court, claiming that he had been falsely accused and that the trial would take a sufficiently long time.
After considering all of the facts and circumstances of the case, as well as the nature and gravity of the offence, the Court noted that the victim stated categorically in her statement under section 164 of the CrPC that the applicant had established a physical relationship with her by impersonating himself as a Hindu under the guise of marriage and pressurized her to convert to Muslim religion.
Furthermore, the Court noted that the accused did not raise any plea in the bail plea that the prosecutrix was a consenting party who entered into a physical relationship of her own volition.
Thus, emphasising that such types of offences are on the rise and are also hazardous to communal harmony in society, the Court, finding prima facie evidence against the accused, refused to grant him bail.
