The Delhi High Court has dismissed the bail application of an accused in a rape case involving a minor, observing that his subsequent marriage to the victim appeared to be a calculated attempt to secure his release from custody rather than a genuine act.

Justice Girish Kathpalia, in an order passed on April 9, observed that “Clearly, the marriage was performed by the accused/applicant simply as a ploy to get himself bailed out, having committed repeated rapes of a minor girl, as alleged by her in the FIR.”

The accused had sought bail on the ground that he got married to the girl on February 12, 2026, and that she also supported his application.

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According to the FIR, the girl alleged that at the age of 16, she developed a friendship with the accused over Facebook. At his request, she accompanied him to a friend’s flat, where he raped her. The accused then assured her that he would marry her once she turned 18.

The girl got pregnant twice and the accused got the pregnancies terminated. But after she attained the age of 18 years, the accused refused to get married to her, leading to her registering the FIR.

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Before the High Court, the girl submits that the contents of the FIR are false and that she was not aware of them because she did not read the FIR. She even stated that initially her counsel had drafted the complaint in English, but at her insistence, he translated it into Hindi, and she submitted it before the local police.

Justice Kathpalia, however, refused to accept the submission. “To begin with, it would be significant to note that the prosecutrix (girl) is a law student and, prima facie, I find it difficult to believe that she is so gullible that she would simply sign such a serious complaint and give it to the local police, that too after getting the same translated from English to Hindi without reading its contents.”

The Court also noted that marriage with the victim, after she turned 18, “does not absolve the accused of his repeated acts of rape when the prosecutrix was a minor in age”.

“Considering the above circumstances, I do not find it a fit case to release the accused/applicant on bail. The bail application is dismissed,” the Court ordered.