Delhi HC grants interim protection from arrest to Mumbai journalist in rape case

The Delhi High Court Friday granted interim protection from arrest to a Mumbaibased television journalist in a rape case provided he joins the police investigationJustice Mukta Gupta issued notices and sought responses of Delhi Police and the complainant woman on journalist Varun Hiremaths plea seeking anticipatory bail in the casePetitioner be not arrested till the next date of hearing subject to him joining the investigation as and when directed the high court saidIt asked the police to verify the documents to be given by the man and file a status report and listed the matter for further hearing on April 16Hiremath represented through senior advocate Kapil Sibal has approached the high court after his earlier anticipatory bail plea was dismissed by a trial court here on March 12The 22yearold woman in her complaint alleged she was raped by Hiremath at a fivestar hotel in Chanakyapuri on February 20The counsel for the 28yearold man claimed before the court that that there had been a history of previous sexual relationship between the accused and the complainantWhen advocate Siddharth Arora representing the complainant urged the court not to grant any protection to Hiremath as he has been on the run for last 50 days the high court said if the man has documents to show that the relationship was consensual let him join the investigation and police will verify itProsecutor Tarang Srivastava accepted notice on behalf of Delhi PoliceThe trial court while rejecting the journalists anticipatory bail plea had said that consent cannot be implied from the complainants previous experiences with the accused and if the woman stated in her evidence before the court that she did not consent the court shall presume that she did notBefore the trial court the mans counsel had highlighted some WhatsApp and Instagram chats between the accused and the complainant in order to show the love and passion between them for each otherIt had also noted in its order that some WhatsApp chats of the accused and the victim after the alleged offence indicated towards the feeling of sorry by the accused of his actsIt has said the question of consent coupled with the conduct of complainant and accused was a matter of trial and that it was only considering the anticipatory bail pleaOn the basis of womans complaint an FIR under IPC sections 376 punishment of offence of rape 342 punishment for wrongful confinement and 509 word gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman was registered at Chanakyapuri police station hereThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever