Bombay High Court observes 'a girl meeting a young boy for the first time would not go to a hotel room' while acquitting man of rape charges

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court acquitted a man convicted of rape terming the victim's version "unbelievable" and her behaviour inconsistent with the conduct of a person of "ordinary prudence".

The court was hearing a case filed by a woman where she claimed that her Facebook friend had allegedly raped her.

The two had met on Facebook and exchanged phone numbers. The man then took her to a hotel room and allegedly clicked some objectionable photographs and threatened to share the photos if she refused to have sexual intercourse with him. Fearing the consequences the victim complied with the man. However, the man still shared the photos on Facebook as well as with her relatives, which led the woman to file an FIR against him.

Justice Sanap who was hearing the case stated that, “a girl meeting a young boy for the first time would not go to a hotel room. Such a conduct on the part of a boy would obviously send the alarming signals to the girl.”

“In my opinion, this conduct of the victim is not consistent with the conduct of a person of ordinary prudence placed in a similar situation,” the judge further added.

According to News 18, Justice Sanap further remarked that the hotel room was not far from the hotel’s busy areas, hence the circumstances of the alleged incident in the hotel room “appear to be unbelievable” .

“In my view, the occurrence of the incident in the hotel room, therefore, appears to be unbelievable. The subsequent conduct of the victim is not consistent,” Justice Sanap’s order read.

The bench also noted that though the accused shared the photos in March 2017, the FIR was only lodged in October 2017 after a delay of a few months.

“It is evident that the victim, after noticing the attitude of the accused, discontinued her relationship with him. It is, therefore, possible that the accused might have decided to trouble them and therefore, on repetitive publication of the photographs of the victim in social media, the parents would have lodged the report,” the judge stated.

The court was reviewing an appeal by the accused, after being convicted by a Sessions Court.