Court grants bail to actor Ashish Kapoor in rape case

A Delhi court has granted bail to TV actor Ashish Kapoor in a rape case, saying he could not be kept incarcerated merely because the Delhi Police thought that he could commit a similar offence in future.

Additional Sessions Judge Bhupinder Singh was hearing the bail plea of Kapoor, against whom the Civil Lines police station had registered an FIR of penal provisions of rape, voluntarily causing hurt and common intention for an alleged incident dated August 9.

In an order dated September 10, the court said, “It is not the case (of the prosecution) that the accused or applicant is required for the purpose of investigation any more. The accused cannot be kept behind bars just for the reason that the police apprehends that he may commit a similar offence in future.”

The court said the prosecution has underlined that the complainant could be threatened by the accused or he may flee from justice, but no action had been taken on the woman’s complaint that she was approached on behalf of the accused, just 10 days after the alleged incident.

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The court said two co-accused persons in the case have been granted bail earlier, and if the police were genuinely concerned that the complainant could be influenced, it would have challenged the relief.

“Further, the police did not even serve notice for appearance to the accused (Kapoor) for joining the investigation except on August 30, i.e., after three weeks of the incident.

“No efforts were made to make the accused join the investigation for a good 21 days, and all of a sudden, the police served the notice, with direction to join the investigation forthwith, and as per the Investigating Officer (IO), a police team was sent to Goa/Pune to arrest the accused simultaneously,” the court said.

Kapoor was arrested within three days on September 2, and if the accused wanted to abscond, he would have done so immediately after the case was registered, it said.

“In fact, anticipatory bail application on his behalf was moved on September 2, only after the service of notice on August, with the direction to join the investigation immediately and not before that,” the court said.

It said that Kapoor could not be expected to remain in his house at all times in the hope that the police may come any time.

The court said Kapoor had been quizzed in police custody for three days. But no sincere efforts were made to recover the mobile phone, neither were searches carried out, it added.

“Besides, there was nothing to suggest that the accused did not cooperate in the investigation,” the court said.

“No previous involvement of the accused in any offence whatsoever has been brought to the notice of the court. The investigations, filing of police report, and further proceedings may take some time, and no purpose shall be served by keeping the accused behind bars,” it said.

The woman’s complaint that she was approached by people known to the accused can be taken care of by imposing appropriate conditions, it added.

“Thus, in view of the aforesaid observations and discussions, the facts and circumstances that have been brought to the notice of the court in view of the documents/ CCTV footages, in particular that the accused/applicant is not required for investigation any more, being permanent resident of Delhi and his clean antecedents, I find merits in the bail application and the same is accordingly allowed,” judge Singh said.