After considering the case, Justice Sharma said that the record reveals that the applicant not only established physical relations with her on the pretext of getting married to her and had continued to do so, but he had also videographed the same.
The Court noted this is not a case one of consensual adolescent mutual love because had it been so, “it would have no place of abusing, blackmailing, inducement, threat, violence, pressurising and threatening her to convert to his religion for the purpose of forcibly getting married to her even when she wanted to get out of the abusive relationship”
“She was put under fear and threat of social shaming of herself and her family, which does not indicate that it was a consensual innocent adolescent mutual love relationship.”
The Bench added that the gravity of offence is aggravated by the fact that the accused was threatening to make public the intimate videos and images that he had captured without consent of the prosecutrix and was using it to blackmail her, and in return was asking for sexual favours.
“In view of the foregoing discussion, and considering the fact that the applicant/accused is continuously threatening and blackmailing the prosecutrix and the charges are yet to be framed and the prosecutrix is yet to be examined, this Court is not inclined to grant any relief to the applicant at this stage,” the Court ordered.
Source: Barandbench
