New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh high court asked a 26-year-old man, accused of molesting a woman, to get a ‘rakhi’ tied by her on the day of Raksha Bandhan.
The court also asked the man to give Rs 11,000 to the woman as part of a customary offering made by brothers to sisters on the occasion, tender Rs 5,000 to the son of the victim for purchase of clothes and sweet and seek her blessings.
The single bench of Justice Rohit Arya passed the order on July 30 while giving conditional bail to the accused, Vikram Bagri.
In the order, the court said, “The applicant, along with his wife, shall visit the house of the complainant with rakhi thread/band on August 3 at 11 am with a box of sweets and request the complainant to tie the rakhi band to him with the promise to protect her to the best of his ability for all times to come.”
Bagri, who was in custody since June 2, 2020, in connection with an FIR against him at the Bhatpachlana police station in Ujjain district for offences including sexual harassment, assault of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty and criminal intimidation, is accused of entering the 30-year-old woman’s house in Ujjain on April 20 and molesting her.
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“The woman, a resident of Ujjain district lodged a complaint against her neighbour on April 20 that he had barged into her house and sexually harassed her,” the government advocate Sudhanshu Vyas said.
In his defence, the accused told the court that he had asked the complainant’s husband to return the outstanding loan amount against him, given during the lockdown period, according to The Leaflet. The complainant’s husband, as per the accused, had taken exception to the demand and as a sequel to it, filed the false case against him.
The accused’s counsel, Vishal Patidar said, “We filed a petition in the high court for a bail as he is the only bread earner in the family and since he has been arrested other members in the family have come on the verge of starvation.”
After hearing both the parties, Justice Arya held that the accused was entitled to bail as he had already been in jail incarceration for more than two months and was not required for further custodial interrogation.
“Bagri would tender Rs 11,000 to the complainant as a customary ritual usually offered by brothers to sisters on the occasion and shall also seek her blessings,” the court said.
The high court also directed Bagri to furnish personal bonds of Rs 50,000 and solvent surety of equal amount in the lower court for his release.
The court also put certain additional conditions for the bail including a direction to the accused person to install the Aarogya Setu App on his mobile phone and to follow all instructions issued by the Union and state governments from time to time on physical distancing, hygiene to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
(With inputs from PTI)