HC grants bail to ex-Cong corporator Gautam Sable in minor’s rape case

In a major relief to former Congress corporator, Gautam Sable, a special court recently granted him bail owing to insufficient evidence against him. He was booked under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The former corporato from Nehru Nagar area in Kurla was arrested under charges of abducting and later raping a minor girl in his locality.

According to the prosecution’s case, a 17-year-old girl had gone missing on March 17, 2017, moments after she returned home from her college. The girl’s parents had lodged a case against Sable claiming that their daughter had a love affair with him and so he kidnapped her. The girl was later found by the Nehru Nagar police wherein she stated that she had love affair with some other man named as Sagar and had gone along with him.

However, in her confessional statements before a Magistrate, the minor girl stated that she was abducted by Sagar and he had raped her. She also stated that Sagar had threatened to throw acid on her face. Subsequently, Sagar learnt about the complaint filed by the victim’s father and he brought her back to Mumbai, but kept her at his relative’s place.

It was the prosecution’s case that Sable had good relations with Sagar and his relatives and accordingly, he went to the place where the victim was kept. There, as per the prosecution, Sable raped the girl and threatened her not to depose against him or Sagar. He had also asked the girl not to go for medical examination. Interestingly, the girl retracted from her earlier statements before the special judge Surekha Patil, who enquired about the incident and if she was raped. Accordingly, the special judge noted that the FIR did not name Sable and also the fact that the girl (in her confessional statements) did not utter a single word against Sable.

Accordingly, the special court released Sable on a surety of Rs. 30,000.