A 23-year-old man accused of raping and circulating nude pictures of a girl on social media has been asked by the Kerala High Court not to access social media as part of his bail conditions. The accused will now be granted a bail on the condition that he complies with a social media ban until the probe is complete. The High Court passed an order to this effect on Thursday. However, if the final probe report finds him guilty and a court accepts this report, the social media ban will continue.
The order was passed by Justice PV Kunhikrishnan who was dealing with the grant of a bail to the 23-year-old accused of raping a 19-year-old woman he was having an affair with. He is accused of raping the woman six times in December 2018. The accused had also threatened to circulate nude pictures of her on social media, if she disclosed the sexual assault to people. He reportedly created a fake account on Facebook and posted the pictures.
While hearing the bail plea, the judge noted that the main grievance of the victim is now the pictures circulated online.
The judge observed that “considering the special facts and circumstances of the case, if bail is granted, why not there be a condition directing the petitioned to not use social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, etc till the case is concluded?”
Depending on the facts of the case, sections 439 and 437 of the Code of Criminal Procedure or CrPC allow the court to place reasonable conditions to allow a bail.
The judge also added that the condition was imposed to protect the girl’s privacy. The accused’s bail plea was allowed considering his age and the COVID-19 pandemic and in view of the general principle that bail is the rule.