HC sees ‘promiscuity’ in victim’s charges, grants bail to accused

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana HC has suspended the sentence of three former law students of a private university in Haryana, who were convicted of gang rape and blackmail, observing that the victim’s statement offered “an alternate conclusion of misadventure stemming from a promiscuous attitude and a voyeuristic mind”.

The division bench of justice Mahesh Grover and justice Raj Shekhar Attri ordered a compensation of ₹10 lakh to the woman to be borne equally by the convicts. It also ordered their psychiatric treatment at AIIMS in New Delhi and sought a progress report from their parents in six months.

On the complaint of the 18-year-old student of Sonepat’s OP Jindal Global University, the police registered a case in April 2015. She alleged her former friend Hardik Sikri was blackmailing her with her nude photos and forced her to establish sexual relationships with him and two of his friends, Vikas Garg and Karan Chhabra, all students of the same university. The offences were committed on campus.

The three were sentenced on May 24 by a Sonepat trial court — Sikri and Chhabra for 20 years each for gang rape and blackmail for about two years. Garg was handed a seven-year jail term for rape and other offences. They challenged the order and sought bail in the HC. In its judgment delivered on September 13, the court dealt with bail pleas only.

While granting bail, the judges, however, seemed to suggest the issue was not of sexual violence but of a generation that is “unable to comprehend the worth of a relationship based on respect and understanding”.

“Testimony of the victim does offer an alternate story of casual relationship with her friends, acquaintances, adventurism and experimentation in sexual encounters and these factors would, therefore, offer compelling reasons to consider the prayer for suspension of sentence favourably, particularly when accused themselves are young and the narrative does not throw up gut-wrenching violence, that normally precedes or accompanies such incidents,” court said.

The court also took note of the fact that the girl admitted a sex toy was suggested by Sikri and her “acceptance” of the same. It noted that the girl visited her family several times in Delhi but made no attempt to confide in her parents. It added that condoms were found from her hostel room after a search and she admitted to taking drugs and alcohol. The court said the case was a “tragedy of sorts”, driving four young lives and an equal number of families into an “abyss”.