Twenty-five-year-old Ratan Chouhan may deny the rape charges levied against him, but his decision to adopt ‘his son’ may have given him a new lease of life.
Twenty-five-year-old Ratan Chouhan may deny the rape allegations levied against him, but his decision to adopt ‘his son’ may have just given him a new lease of life.
In a rare order, the Bombay High Court on Thursday asked Chouhan, a rape convict in appeal, to accept and adopt the four-year-old borne out of the rape, and then granted him bail.
Chouhan, a native of UP, was accused and convicted for raping a minor by the Palghar Sessions Court in March this year and was sentenced to seven years and three months’ imprisonment.
Chouhan, through his appeal against the conviction before the high court, had sought bail. “Earlier the court had asked us whether Chouhan would be willing to look after the child. The court had said that if he agreed, then it may consider granting him bail as it would be necessary for the welfare of the child,” Sanjiv Kadam, Chouhan’s advocate, told DNA.
Kadam said that Chouhan used to stay on rented accommodation with his wife and three kids in Boisar and the alleged raped minor was a vegetable vendor in the vicinity.
However, in his appeal before the HC, Chouhan had contended that he had a love affair with the 16-year-old girl who later accused him of rape. He stated that she had filed the complaint only after she gave birth to a baby boy on June 6, 2004.
He claimed that the girl and her family knew that he was married but she continued to maintain physical relations with him.
Chouhan, in his appeal, also said that the girl in question had given birth to the child and abandoned it near a drainage pipe. After being found by the police, the child was sent to a remand home in Bhiwandi and later to Manav Seva Sangh in Sion where he was named Chintan.
Before the Juvenile Justice Board the girl, however, shrugged all responsibility of the child. After conducting DNA tests it was revealed that Chouhan’s blood samples matched with that of the boy.
On Thursday, justice VM Kanade said that Chouhan, his wife, and his mother-in-law, would have to file a joint affidavit stating that they were willing to take responsibility of Chintan. The court, however, appointed advocate Rebecca Gonsalvez as amicus curie (friend of the court) and directed her to tell the court what would be the best in the child’s interest.
Additional public prosecutor Swapnil Pednekar said that the court has sought the affidavit by January 16.
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