New Delhi, August 29: Delhi court granted bail to a young man who was put behind bars for allegedly running away with a minor girl and marrying her.
Juglu (20) was granted bail after the girl stated that she forced him to tie the knot and is now bearing his child.
The girl admitted that he did not entice her to run away and it was she who compelled him to marry her because she was afraid that her parents might marry her off to an old man.
“In the statement, the victim stated that her parents wanted to get her married to an aged person of 55 years and threatened to kill her. She further stated that she has compelled him to marry her and she loves him and she was pregnant from him.
“In view of the statement of the girl, in my considered view, the applicant deserves bail,” Additional Sessions Judge S K Sarvaria said.
The court passed the order after advocates Priyanka Gupta and Nitesh Mishra, appearing for the accused, submitted that consummation of marriage took place after the girl attained 16 years of age and the youth cannot be prosecuted for rape.
The 16 year old girl had run away with Juglu and married him in Uttar Pradesh in April last year.
In the meantime, her parents lodged an FIR against the boy accusing him of kidnapping their daughter.
The police, after probing the case, traced the couple and the man was taken into custody.
But the girl in her statement refuted the allegations levelled against her husband. She said she had run away with him on her own and she was not kidnapped.
—-Agencies