Story Of Rendering Someone Unconscious By A Handkerchief Soaked In Chloroform Cannot Be Believed: Allahabad HC Grants Bail To Rape Accused After Relying On Medical Textbook
The Allahabad High Court, citing a medical textbook, disbelieved the claim that the victim was rendered unconscious by a chloroform-soaked handkerchief and granted bail to the rape accused.
The Court was hearing a bail application filed by the applicant seeking bail in a case for offences under Sections 328, 376, 323, 344, 354-C, 384, 504, 506 of I.P.C. during the pendency of the trial.
The bench of Justice Krishan Pahal while looking into the fact of rendering a person unconscious by putting a handkerchief on her face relied on Modi's Medical Jurisprudence & Toxicology and quoted, “It is also impossible for an inexperienced man to anaesthetise a sleeping person without disturbance, so as to substitute artificial sleep for natural sleep. Hence the story often published in the lay press of a woman having been rendered suddenly unconscious by a handkerchief soaked in chloroform held over her face and then raped is not to be believed.”
Advocate Sandeep Mishra appeared for the Appellant and AGA Amit Kumar appeared for the Respondent.
Brief Facts-
It is the case of the prosecution that the applicant entered into a physical relationship with the informant and performed a fake marriage with her in concealing the fact that he already had two children from his first marriage. It was claimed that the informant previously filed an FIR under Section 366 of the IPC against him, which the police closed based on her statement recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. which she made after she was intoxicated by the Applicant. The applicant was also accused of threatening the informant with making indecent videos of her viral, which he is said to have recorded.
The Court observed, “A person's right to life and liberty, guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, cannot be taken away simply because the person is accused of committing an offence until the guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution states that no one's life or personal liberty may be taken away unless the procedure established by law is followed, and the procedure must be just and reasonable.”
Accordingly, the Court allowed the Bail Application.
Cause Title: Ravindra Singh Rathaur v. State of U.P. (Neutral Citation: 2024:AHC:117849)
