The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal filed by a 22-year-old woman against a Delhi High Court order granting anticipatory bail to a Mumbai journalist whom she has accused of rape.
A Vacation Bench of Justices Navin Sinha and Ajay Rastogi said it found no reason to interfere with the High Court’s order of May 13 protecting journalist, Varun Hiremath, from arrest. The crime is alleged to have been committed in the capital on February 20.
Senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, for the woman, submitted that the accused had absconded for 50 days.
“The question is of normal human conduct and behaviour. If a man and woman are in a room, the man makes a request and the woman complies with it, do we need to say anything more?” the court said at one point.
Ms. Ramakrishnan said the act was forcibly committed. She had repeatedly denied consent.
But the Bench refused to delve on the question of consent, saying the petition before it only concerned the grant of anticipatory bail.
The trial court, while rejecting his anticipatory bail plea, had said the court should presume in her favour.
