Bombay High Court: In this case before the High Court, victim was adopted when she was 9 years old by the accused after her mother succumbed to HIV. After her mother’s death, she was living in a protective home from where she was adopted by the accused and his wife. She complained about the sexual abuses to an NGO named ‘Childline’ that she was undergoing the trauma for several years and a complaint against the accused was registered under Section 354, IPC and Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The Court relied on the fact that supervisor of the protective home had warned the adoptive parents about her abnormal and unnatural behaviour. The Court went on to rely on a note written by the prosecutrix herself to come to a conclusion that she was inherently abnormal and had sexual instincts from her childhood and also, blamed the conduct of deceased mother for the same. Justice Sadhana S. Jadav approved the bail application of accused on these grounds and on an additional ground that there was a considerable lapse of time when she lodged the complaint. [Domnic Richard Rodrigues v. State of Maharashtra, Cr. Bail Application no. 708 of 2016, decided on 16.01.2017]
