More to their surprise, Justices B S Chauhan and Kurian Joseph found that the Patna high court had rejected Shahnawaz Alam's anticipatory bail almost a year ago on April 29, 2013 and directed him to surrender. Yet, the police had not arrested him, the bench found.
Alam claimed that it was a consensual sexual relationship between him and the girl and that he wanted to marry the alleged rape survivor to take care of the child born out of their relationship. The girl's father had lodged a complaint against him and the girl too had given a statement that the accused had raped her with the promise of marriage.
The bench dismissed the petition despite the accused pleading that the girl had now changed her statement and expressed willingness to marry him. The bench said if a rape accused roams free for such a long period, it would not be surprised to find him coercing the victim to change her statement.
While rejecting the anticipatory bail plea, the bench said it showed the "sorry state of affairs" relating to law enforcement in Bihar. Though the anticipatory bail plea of the rape accused was rejected by the HC exactly a year ago and was directed to surrender, "for reasons best known to administration he was not arrested", the bench said.
It asked the director general of Bihar Police to file a personal affidavit explaining the circumstances in which the rape accused was not arrested for three years.
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