In light of the ongoing debate over brutal crimes against minors and women, the Jammu and Kashmir high court on Thursday passed a landmark judgment against a judicial magistrate, ordering "appropriate action" be taken for granting bail in a "most casual and cursory manner" to a woman accused of abducting a minor and subjecting her to gangrape by three men for 22 days.
The court has also ordered an inquiry against the prosecuting officer and investigating officer.
A single bench of Justice MK Hanjura quashed Masoomabibi's bail in the kidnapping case of the minor in RS Pura last year and directed the registry to place the order before the Chief Justice to initiate "appropriate action as deemed fit against the Judicial Magistrate concerned, so that the faith of the people on the temple of justice is not shattered and eroded".
The incident dates back to August 2017 when a 15-year-old girl was abducted on her way home from school at Chakrohi in the Jammu district.
Later, Masoomabibi, keeping the victim under influence of substances, forcibly solemnised her marriage to one of the accused. The victim then suffered for 22 days as she was raped repeatedly by the 'groom' and his two friends.
"It is a beastly and an abhorrent act, in which, the accused is prima facie found to have abetted and facilitated the commission of the offence of rape on a girl of tender age, that too, by a gang of persons for about 20 to 22 days", the judge said adding, "The order impugned has been passed by the learned Magistrate in the most casual and cursory manner without looking into the gravity of the offence leveled and without gauging the capacity of the accused and others to influence the witnesses of the prosecution and to turn the case in their favour."
The judge also exhorted that the magistrate had failed to look at its societal repurcussions. "She has forgotten to visualise that the sense of justice of the victim shall be shattered if the accused is released on bail. If the demands of the society and the law would have been applied in the proper perspective, a miscarriage of justice would not have occurred," he said.
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