[BREAKING] Supreme Court rejects plea by rape survivor to marry rapist Catholic Priest Robin Vadakkumcherry

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea filed by a rape survivor seeking bail for her rapist, a Catholic Priest, Robin Vadakkumcherry so that they can get married. .A Bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari said that there is no reason to interfere with the High Court order rejecting bail for the convict father and asked the petitioner to approach the High Court for relief. .The plea was an appeal against a February 17 order of the Kerala High Court dismissing the priest's plea for bail."We see no reason to disturb the order of the Kerala High Court," the Court said.Both the rape survivor and the convict had moved the Supreme Court in appeal against the Kerala High Court order. The survivor's plea was that the the convict should be granted bail so that she can marry him in order to grant legitimacy to the child born to her after she was raped. The priset had also filed appeal citing similar ground. "In a bail plea, how can my fundamental right to marry be hindered. Observations should not be such that an application cannot be made to jail superintendent. There are scathing observations by the High Court," said Advocate Amit George appearing for the accused. "You invited it yourself," the Court remarked refusing relief. "We can only request the High Court to hear the accused. Approach the High Court for relief," the Court added. .Vadakkumcherry was the priest at the parish when he raped the girl who was a minor at the time of the incident. The girl who had just completed her class 10 exam had gone to the parsonage for some work when the priest took her to his bedroom and raped her. He then told the girl not to reveal the incident to anyone. Subsequently, the girl had become pregnant and a DNA test revealed that Vadakkumcherry was responsible. During the trial, she had turned hostile saying that she had attained age of consent at the time of the incident and the sex was consensual. .The POCSO court had, however, convicted Vadakkumcherry and sentence him to rigorous imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of Rs 2 lakh. .[Read Order]

[BREAKING] Supreme Court rejects plea by rape survivor to marry rapist Catholic Priest Robin Vadakkumcherry

Debayan Roy

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