"Nothing More Grave": Delhi High Court Cancels Bail Of Father Booked For Repeatedly Raping Minor Daughter

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna observed,

“There cannot be anything more grave than a child being abused by her own father, who gave her birth and holds the pious duty and responsibility of ensuring her safety.”

The bench said the Sessions Court misdirected itself by granting bail in such a grave case, that too within 9 days of arrest.

“It is a case where there are not only serious allegations made by the Petitioner/Victim of sexual assault since the age of 10 to 15 years, but there is also some evidence by way of the videos recovered from the mobile phone of the Accused, to lend credence to her averments. Also, the Petitioner had made specific allegations of there being a physical abuse of the mother, which used to scare and terrify her and prevented her from disclosing the entire incidents.”

The man is booked under Sections 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (Assault of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (Sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment), 377 (Unnatural offences), 376 (Punishment for rape) and under the POCSO Act.

He is accused of sexually abusing his daughter since she turned 10 and attained puberty. She gathered the courage to lodge a complaint only in 2021, a year after she and her mother separated from the father.

The Respondent-father on the other hand claimed that his daughter was tutored by the mother to gain mileage in their matrimonial dispute.

Rejecting his contentions, the High Court said,

“In the entire Complaint, details of specific incidents have been mentioned and it contains glaring incidents of blatant sexual abuse of a child. The gravity of the offence cannot be overlooked and ignored merely by terming it as an outcome of the matrimonial dispute between the Respondent No. 2 and his wife.”

It also found that the allegations were prima facie corroborated from the FSL Report of the Respondent's mobile phone, which confirmed obscene videos being present in the mobile phone.

“There cannot be anything more perverse and shocking that such acts of the father, if found to be correct and true…Bail has been granted within 06 days of registration of FIR by observing that the investigation was complete in the case, is again completely erroneous. The Status Report shows that the investigations were still ongoing…It has been completely overlooked that according to the Prosecutrix, she was being subjected to such depraved acts of her father for last about five years, since she was about ten years old,” the Court said and cancelled the man's bail.

He has been directed to surrender before the Sessions Court within 07 days.

Appearance: Advocates Kapil Madan, Gurmukh Singh Arora and Ayushi Bisth for Petitioner; Mr. Sanjeev Bhandari, Ld. ASC for State with SI Meena, P.S. Maurya Enclave Mr. Shikhar Singh, Advocate for R-2

Case title: D A Minor Through Her Mother And Natural Guardian Mrs. Rupi Babbar v. State

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1148

Case no.: W.P.(CRL) 1248/2021

Click here to read order