Delay in rape plaint does not mean victim is lying, says Bombay high court

MUMBAI: Reluctance to report a sexual assault to the police immediately does not mean the victim is lying as Indian women would rarely make such false allegations, the Bombay high court has said while upholding the conviction of four men for gang rape. Justice A M Badar earlier this week dismissed the appeals of Dattatraya Korde, Ganesh Pardeshi, Pintu Khoskar and Ganesh Zole, who had challenged a sessions court order of April 2013 sentencing them to 10 years in jail for gang rape.
They were convicted of raping a woman and thrashing her male friend on March 15, 2012, when the two were returning from Trimbakeshwar in Nashik. The convicts claimed that they were framed as they had seen the victim and her friend in a compromising position and threatened to take them to police for indecent behaviour.
The appeals sought to highlight that while the woman claimed that the incident took place on March 15, she lodged the complaint two days later.
Medical examination had ruled out rape since there was no injury on the woman's body, said the appellants.
The HC upheld the conviction and sentence, citing a Supreme Court observation in a past case that "rarely will a girl or woman in India make false allegations of sexual assault". agencies