A Mumbai sessions court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to Deputy Inspector General Sunil Paraskar in a rape case filed against him by a city based model. This means that the officer cannot be subjected to a custodial interrogation.
On July 24, a Mumbai based Gladrags model had lodged a complaint accusing Mr. Paraskar for raping and molesting her between November 2013 and March 2014. A day later, Mr. Paraskar had moved a sessions court in Mumbai seeking relief from arrest.
The prosecution however plans to challenge the court’s order in the Bombay High Court.
In her order, Sessions judge Ms. Vrushali Joshi observed that the alleged act if committed might be with consent. “I am of the belief that the case does not fall under the purview of sections- 376(2) (Intercourse by public servant with woman in his custody) and 376(C) (Intercourse by superintendent of jail, etc) of the IPC. It appears from the behaviour of the complainant and her emails that the act must be committed with consent,” she observed.
The judge also opined that jealousy could be the possible motive behind the model lodging the complaint. “It appears from her emails that she was having a suspicion that he (Mr. Paraskar) was having a relationship with another model. This could be the possibility behind her lodging the said complaint,” she opined.
“Even after the said offences the behaviour of the complainant towards the accused was normal. She used to go out with him. It has not come across that he pressurised her. The two travelled together. She gifted him an I-phone. He gifted her a Samsung mobile phone. From 2013 to 2014 they had friendly relationship. After June 2014 she started making allegation against him. The word (a four letter slang) she has used in her email does not prove ‘rape’,” she opined.
After the order, a relived Mr. Paraskar said that the allegations against him were baseless though he did not deny accompanying the victim to the two places mentioned by her in her FIR. “I did go out with her to those places as mentioned in the FIR by the complainant but I was only helping her in the capacity of a friend,” Mr. Paraskar told The Hindu .
“If you see the CCTV and the audio recording with her former lawyer you could decipher that she might have done so to be a part of a reality show,” he added.
