Karnataka HC grants anticipatory bail to mother of man booked for rape, religious conversion of his wife

The Karnataka High Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to the mother of a man accused of raping a woman and inducing her to change her religion before marrying her..The accused man is also alleged to have later abandoned his wife and their child in Kolkata. He was eventually booked in a criminal case and accused of the offences of rape, marital cruelty, kidnapping, causing hurt, criminal intimidation, domestic violence, forced religious conversion as well as for privacy violation-related offences under the Information Technology Act.His mother was also among those named in the same case. She later moved the High Court for anticipatory bail. Her counsel argued that she had no role to play in any of the alleged offences. The State countered that a custodial interrogation was required to ascertain what role she may have played. Justice R Nataraj, however, was not persuaded to deny the accused man's mother anticipatory bail on such grounds. He observed that even going by the complainant's narration of events, the marriage between her and the accused was a love marriage that was solemnised under the Special Marriage Act.In such circumstances, the judge disagreed with the trial court's approach of denying the accused man's mother anticipatory bail merely on the ground that the allegations in the case were grave."The petitioner could not have been denied bail on a specious ground that the offences are grave. The offences alleged against accused No.1 are neither punishable with death nor life imprisonment. Furthermore, the= involvement of the petitioner in an offence under Section 64 of BNS (rape), 2023 appears presently to be remote," the Court said. .The case arose from a complaint lodged on March 17. The complainant woman alleged that before their marriage, her current husband made her consume a drink in February 2025 that rendered her unconscious and then sexually assaulted her. She claimed that he recorded nude and objectionable videos and blackmailed her with the recordings to continue sexually assaulting her. She accused him of physically attacking her while she was pregnant as well, leading to the death of her unborn child. Later, she said that the accused pressured her to convert from Hinduism to Islam, insisting that he would not marry her otherwise. She stated that she converted to Islam on June 22, 2025, changed her name and married him. She further accused him of taking her to different locations after the marriage before he finally abandoned her and their two-month-old baby in Kolkata on January 23 this year. After returning to Bengaluru, she claimed that a group of persons associated with the accused man, compelled her to record a video stating that she was happy in the marriage.She alleged that the accused and his associates then took away her infant child.The allegations prompted Suddaguntepalya Police Station to register a case against the complainant's husband and others under Sections 85, 64, 137(2), 118(1), 118(2), 351(2) and 61(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Section 66(E) of the Information Technology Act, 2008, Section 4 of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and Section 3 of the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Ordinance, 2022.The accused man's mother (petitioner) was among those named an accused in the case. She has now been granted anticipatory bail in the case, subject to various conditions. .The petitioner was represented by advocate Afroz Pasha.The State was represented by High Court Government Pleader Waheeda M M.