Concealment Of Religion To Have Physical Relations On Pretext Of Marriage Is False Promise To Marry: Allahabad HC Denies Bail

While citing Pramod v. State of U.P., Criminal Misc. Bail Application No. 716 of 2023, a bench of Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery observed, “… if a person since beginning has a mala fide intention to deceive victim, as the case in hand, wherein applicant has introduced himself as a person of different religion to deceive victim and made a promise of marriage to have physical relationship with her, then it would be a case of false promise of marriage”.

Advocate Kiran Kumar Arora, appeared for the applicant, G.A. Subhash Chandra Singh, appeared for the informant, and A.G.A Sunil Srivastava, appeared for the State.

In the present matter, the applicant-accused Chand Babu alias Vishal, sought bail for the alleged offences under Sections 376(2)(n), 420, 506 IPC and 3/5 U.P. Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act.

The FIR in the matter was lodged by the victim herself, wherein she had alleged that the applicant introduced himself to be a Hindu boy and repeatedly made physical relationship with her initially with a promise to marry, however, later on, forced her to convert and raped her under the threat that he would put her unsolicited photographs on social media platforms.

Although, the applicant underlining the delay in filing the FIR argued that it was a typical case of honeytrap wherein applicant was trapped by victim and later on even started blackmailing.

Furthermore, claiming it to be bald assertions, submitted hotel records to show that the victim portrayed herself as Neha Khan in order to conceal her identity herself.

Considering the allegations, statement of the victim recorded under Sections 161 and 164 CrPC and the evidences, the bench noted, “ It would be relevant to refer statement of Manager of Hotel recorded during trial that at Hotel a copy of Aadhar card of applicant only was submitted. Signature of victim was in the name of Seema, therefore, apparently she does not know that her name was shown as Neha Khan in visitor's register…”.

Therefore while rejecting bail of the applicant, the bench observed, “In view of above discussion and considering facts of present case, it does not appear to be a case of honeytrap, rather it is a case of trap made by applicant by representing himself to be a person of different religion and trapped victim to have physical relationship against her will and later on under threat of putting her unsolicited photographs on social media platforms”.

Cause Title: - Chand Babu @ Vishal v. State of U.P [Neutral Citation No. - 2023:AHC:88857]