SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has rejected the bail pleas of four men accused of abducting and gang-raping a 15-year-old girl in Srinagar in 2022, observing that the trial was nearing completion and that the seriousness of the charges and possibility of flight risk weighed against their release.
Justice M A Chowdhary dismissed the bail application filed by Irqan Ahmad Dar, Basit Ali Dar, Irfan Ahmad Najar and Firdous Ahmad Ahanger, who have been in judicial custody since February 15, 2022.
The case stems from FIR No. 2/2022 registered at Bemina Police Station on February 11, 2022, under Sections 363, 376-D and 109 of the IPC and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
According to the judgment, the complainant had reported that his 15-year-old daughter had left home to buy candies but did not return. She was recovered from the Tourist Reception Centre in Srinagar the following day.
During investigation, the girl told police that she had been kidnapped from JVC Srinagar by four persons in a Tata Sumo vehicle and taken to forests in Tangmarg, where she was allegedly gang-raped. The judgment said she reiterated the allegation before a magistrate.
The prosecution case was supported by medical, digital and scientific evidence, following which a chargesheet was filed before the trial court on April 8, 2022.
The accused had sought bail citing their prolonged incarceration, clean antecedents and alleged inconsistencies in the prosecution case. Their counsel argued that they had spent more than four years in custody and that continued detention before conviction should not become punitive.
The prosecution opposed the pleas, arguing that the offences were heinous, that the victim and other witnesses could face intimidation and that the accused could tamper with evidence or evade the trial.
The High Court noted that 22 of the 28 prosecution witnesses had already been examined, describing the trial as progressing at a “phenomenal pace”. It also observed that only a couple of witnesses remained to be examined.
The court said the petitioners’ plea of long incarceration could not be considered in isolation, particularly given the nature of the allegations and the punishment prescribed for the offences.
It further held that the statutory presumption under the POCSO Act had not been rebutted and that the gravity of the alleged offence, which carries punishment extending to imprisonment for the remainder of natural life, weighed against granting bail.
“Since the trial of the case is almost complete,” the court observed, it would be in the interest of justice for the accused to face the trial while remaining in custody.
The bail application and connected applications were accordingly dismissed.
