The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court, during the hearing on the bail of the accused, said that “a girl child is not someone’s property that can be donated.”
The high court said this because a rape case came up before it in which the victim’s father had allegedly donated his daughter to a self-styled godman.
The case is of a village where a self-styled godman lived, who harmed the youth of the village. The matter arose as a result of his resolve to evict devotees (the girl and her father) from the temple grounds.
After donating the girl child, she was Gang-Raped. When the court was hearing the bail hearings of the accused and the two accused villagers, this ‘donation paper’ came to light.
The Court was hearing the accused and the two villagers under Sections 376, 376(d), 341, 323, of the Indian Penal Code as well as Sections 4, 6, 8, and 12, of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act.
However, the High Court has granted bail to the accused. The High Court said in the order that there was no need to take the accused into Custody as the charge sheet had already been filed, and the investigation was completed.
Before pronouncing the court order, the court noted a perplexing trend of donation letters, in which a document was signed between the girl’s father and Baba. It was written in that document that the girl’s father had donated his daughter to Baba.
Due to this, the Court ordered the girl’s father to file an affidavit regarding the incident. The girl’s father kept on deferring this by lying that she was ill and did not get the affidavit filed. But after the lie was exposed, an affidavit was filed. The father said this affidavit was filed by God.
According to the affidavit, Baba had adopted the girl in 2018, but the adoption process was still on. While the document stated that the girl lived with her father, no reason could be found as to why the father donated his daughter to Baba.
The court directed the CWC to determine whether a ‘donation letter’ is required for adoption.
Justice Kankanwadi said that he is passing this order to prevent the 17-year-old girl from indulging in any illegal activity future.
