Man in rape case is granted bail by PHC

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has granted bail to a man who was detained on suspicion of sexually assaulting a young woman in the Swat district roughly two months ago under the pretence of getting married to her. The petition of the accused was allowed by Judge Mohammad Naeem Anwar of a single-member bench in exchange for the provision of two surety bonds, each worth Rs200,000.

The bench noted that although it was denied that the complainant (woman) had accused the petitioner of raping her in his home, the FIR contained no claims that he had kidnapped or deceitfully brought her there. The bench noted that it appeared from a preliminary evaluation of the data that the complainant had voluntarily gone to the petitioner’s home. It was further said that under such circumstances, it was impossible to tell at the bail stage whether the complainant had given her agreement to the petitioner’s sexual activity or not.

The bench ruled that the trial court would be in a better position to determine whether the allegations against the petitioner constituted a rape offence as defined in Section 375 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which was punishable under Section 376, or it was a case of fornication, which was punishable under Section 376 after recording prosecution evidence, particularly the statement of the complainant.

It further stated that a suitable procedure for submitting a complaint had been given by Section 203-C of the Code of Criminal Procedure. On January 1, 2023, the woman complained, and the Mingora police station in Swat lodged the FIR of the alleged crime. According to the complainant, she went to a bakery about two weeks ago and there the accused gave her his phone number.

She continued by saying she called the defendant at that number and struck up a friendship with him. The complainant said that on the evening of December 30, 2022, the accused had brought her to his residence under the pretence of performing nikkah with her, but had instead forced her to consent to sexual abuse.