The Delhi High Court Wednesday granted bail to a man accused of kidnapping and rape after the woman he was accused of raping admitted she had gone with him willingly. A single-judge bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani, in its December 21 order, observed that at the time the alleged offences took place (July 25, 2020-February 18, 2021), though the woman was a minor, she was at the “cusp of majority”. “…Going by her date of birth of 12.11.2003, she was at the cusp of majority, being about 17 years, 08 months old. In her statement recorded under section 164 Cr.P.C., as also in her court deposition, ‘X’ (woman) has consistently maintained that she had accompanied the petitioner by her own free volition; and that she got married to him; and had lived with him and also got impregnated by him,” the court noted. The court said the woman admitted that she had a child with the accused, “all of which appears to have been done willingly”. The court held that “prima facie” from the facts of the case, it could be inferred that there was a “consensual physical relationship” between the woman and the accused. The accused’s lawyer argued that it was a case of “juvenile romance” and the woman – who is now a major – regards the accused as her husband and wished to live with him. The court during the course of the proceedings had interacted with the woman at length and noted, “It would be in the fitness of things to record at this point, that considering the sensitive nature of the matter and the fact that ‘X’ was present in court in-person, the hearing of the matter was conducted in camera. The court interacted with ‘X’ at length; and it was found that ‘X’ completely and wholeheartedly endorses and affirms whatever has come to be recorded in the course of investigation and trial” Granting bail to the accused, the court further said, the woman offered to stand ‘surety’ for the accused if he is admitted to bail since it appeared that she was the only local surety available to him as he hails from Bihar. The court directed the accused, who had been in judicial custody for 22 months, to furnish a personal bond of Rs 10,000 with two local sureties. A First Information Report (FIR) under sections 363 (Punishment for kidnapping)/366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage)/376 (punishment for rape) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act was registered after woman’s mother reported that her daughter had gone missing on July 25, 2020.