Gwalior: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has requested the Central Government to consider reducing the age of consensual relationship between a boy and a girl from 18 to 16 years.
The court noted that many teenagers come in close contact at early age on internet and engage in relationships. In some cases, girls' age is found less than 18 years. The court cited an instance of rape under Posco Act to substantiate its claim. In 2020, Rahul Jatav, a resident of Thatipur police station area of Gwalior, was booked for raping a 14-year-old girl. Rahul was arrested on July 17 that year. Since then, he is lodged in jail.
Advocate Rajmani Bansal, told the High Court that she had accused two people of rape. On January 18, the girl went to Rahul's place for taking tuition. When she reached the coaching centre, there was none present on the spot. Rahul Jatav gave her juice which she consumed and fainted. Thereafter, Rahul captured some of her intimate videos which he used to threaten her. Jatav used to blackmail her by threatening to make the video viral and forced her to establish physical relationship with him.
The girl got physically intimate with Rahul and became pregnant. She also had an abortion in September 2020 after getting permission from the court. The girl had also accused a distant relative of raping her on the pretext of marriage. Advocate Bansal told the court that mutual relations were formed only with the consent of both persons. He also said that his client has been falsely implicated and requested the High Court to quash the FIR lodged against Rahul. After listening to all the arguments, the High Court quashed the FIR registered against Rahul Jatav and requested the Central government to consider the age of mutual relationship between the couple.
