In his anticipatory bail application, Vinamra Soni — the sixth suspect in the Tiss rape case — has raised doubts about the 23-year-old victim’s character, asking why she was accompanying six men so late in the night.
KP Joshi, the additional sessions judge, granted Soni interim relief till Tuesday and asked him be present in court. Police are expected to file a reply on Tuesday.
“The act of the victim accompanying the accused persons who was lonely lady (sic) with six male persons in long midnight itself shows the nature of the victim and therefore, whatever would have happened might be due to willingness of the victim (sic)”, read the application. Thus no offence was committed, concluded the application.
Outside the court, Soni’s lawyer, ND Patil, said the victim wanted Rs2 lakh. “The complainant (victim) and Soni had a heated argument on Sunday morning (after the alleged rape) when she asked for Rs@ lakh. She did not give any reasons why she needed the money. She just said, ‘give me the money now’,” Patil said. Soni told her that he could arrange about Rs5,000 to Rs10,000 as he was a student living far off from his home and that Rs2 lakh was too big an amount, he said.
Patil vehemently denied the allegations of rape. “At Kundan Borgohain’s flat, the complainant and accused again consumed alcohol and then went off to sleep,” he said. “Soni had hugged and kissed her considering her a good friend. His intention was not bad.”
Soni, according to Patil, wanted to stay away from the alleged incident. “When Harshvardhan Yadav bought the woman a contraceptive pill from a chemist shop, Soni did not enquire about it because he wanted to stay out of the incident,” he said.
According to the application, the woman was unconscious and unable to attribute any specific role to the accused. “Since all the accused persons were in her company on that night (sic), she might have taken names of all the accused, including the present applicant (Soni).”
