New Delhi:
The Delhi Excessive Court docket has considerably held the consent to have intercourse does not permit capturing non-public moments and posting it on social media.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma whereas dismissing the bail software by a rape accused stated consent didn’t lengthen to allowing misuse and exploitation of personal photographs.
“Even when the consent for sexual relations had been given at any cut-off date by the complainant, such consent can’t, in any method, be construed as consent to seize and publish her inappropriate movies on social media platforms. Consent to interact in bodily relations doesn’t lengthen to the misuse or exploitation of an individual’s non-public moments or their depiction in an inappropriate and derogatory method,” the court docket held in a January 17 verdict.
The accused, within the current case, alleged it was a case of a “lengthy pleasant relationship” turning bitter owing to the girl failing to repay a mortgage he gave her.
Refusing to grant any reprieve, the court docket stated even when the preliminary sexual relationship between the events was consensual, the alleged subsequent acts of the accused have been “clearly rooted in coercion and blackmail”.
“Whereas the primary sexual encounter could have been consensual, the next ones have been allegedly based mostly on blackmail, with the accused profiting from the movies to exert management over the complainant. The accused’s actions in making ready the movies and utilizing them to govern and sexually exploit the complainant prima-facie displays a method of abuse and exploitation, transcending any preliminary consensual interplay,” it stated.
It prima facie appeared that the accused had exploited his relationship below the guise of a mortgage transaction however such an association — even between pals — didn’t entitle one social gathering to use the opposite’s vulnerability or dignity, the court docket stated.
The court docket rejected the accused’s plea that being married, the girl was mature sufficient to know the importance of her actions, and stated an “try to weaponise” her marital standing {and professional} background to decrease the gravity of the allegations was “unacceptable”.
The mere incontrovertible fact that, stated the court docket, the complainant labored in a therapeutic massage parlour couldn’t be used to decrease the seriousness of the alleged offences dedicated towards her when there was no proof of her participating in illicit or illegal actions.
The complainant alleged she was lured by the accused who additionally gave her Rs 3.5 lakh in mortgage to enrol in a course however subsequently started blackmailing her to conform along with his sexual calls for.
She alleged by 2023 finish, the accused got here to Delhi and confirmed an allegedly objectionable video of her on his cellphone and compelled her to have intercourse for 2 days whereas threatening to make the movies public.
He reportedly posted the content material on social media platforms resembling Fb, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)