The Punjab and Haryana High Court granted bail to the rapists in the blackmail and gang-rape case of a student from Sonipat's OP Jindal Global University.
The court admitted the bail plea of the three convicts - Hardik Sikri, Karan Chabra and Vikas Garg - soon after it observed that the statement by the victim had an alternate meaning of "misadventure stemming from a promiscuous attitude and a voyeuristic mind."
"We are conscious of the fact that allegations of the victim regarding her being threatened into submission and blackmail lends sufficient diabolism to the offence, but a careful examination of her statement again offers an alternate conclusion of misadventure stemming from a promiscuous attitude and a voyeuristic mind," observed a division bench comprising Justice Mahesh Grover and Justice Raj Shekhar Atri, according to the Times of India report.
The court has also directed the three to pay Rs 10 lakh to the rape survivor as compensation.
A division bench of the HC has now ordered counselling for the three convicts at the All India of Medical Science (AIIMS), in an attempt to "correct their behavioural aberration."
All three convicts will be counselled by a trained psychiatrist of AIIMS and based on the report, the court will decide if the convicts are "free of their voyeuristic tendencies".
The bench also observed in the statement that Hardik persuaded the girl to take nude pictures after he sent his own to her. But this shows her admission to comply with what Hardik had asked of her.
In March 2017, the Sonipat court sentenced Hardik and Karan to 20 years in jail each and seven years to Vikas after they were held guilty of blackmailing and gang-raping the college student for nearly two years.
The counsel for the accused had been arguing that the testimony by the girl did not speak of traumatic blackmail and said that she turned out to be willing and compliant.
The girl had lodged a complaint with the university administration on April 11, 2015, alleging that the three final year law students had been blackmailing and raping her since August 2013.
The girl, in her complaint, said that the trio had objectionable photos of her and were threatening her that they would make those pictures public if she did not get physical with them.
