Mumbai: Actor Shiney Ahuja may not be a
saint, but he is not a rapist either, his lawyer said in the
Bombay High Court today pleading for bail.
Arguing before the High Court, after sessions court
rejected Shiney's bail plea in the rape case, his lawyer said
that evidence indicated a consensual sexual intercourse
between the actor and the complainant girl.
"I (Shiney) am not a saint in a sense, but not a rapist,"
said advocate Shirish Gupte, representing Shiney.
Shiney was arrested by police on June 15, after his
20-year-old domestic maid accused him of raping her. Since
then he is in custody, and lower court is set to frame charges
in the case.
Gupte argued that medical and other evidence suggested
that intercourse was entirely with the girl's consent.
"She was habituated to this (intercourse)," he alleged,
saying that "she had history of closeness to men".
Gupte said that as per medical reports, there were no
injuries on Shiney's body, barring one between two fingers of
hand. "It could be love-bites... or she clutched his hand very
hard," he said, adding that had the girl resisted, she could
have scratched Shiney's face, or his upper body.
Gupte also alleged that on the night before the incident,
the girl had called Shiney's house 10 times from her
cell phone.
The arguments would continue tomorrow.
Gupte said that there were no injuries on the girl's
body, nor were there any signs of damage on her clothes, to
suggest use of force.
Also, no body fluids were found on her clothes, he
pointed out. The girl's "pattern of behaviour" shows that she
was consenting party”, Shiney's lawyer argued.
The girl had told the police that on June 13, a day
before the incident, Shiney had touched her in a wrong way
when she had clambered on basin to turn on overhead water
tank, and she had chided him for that.
She did not tell this to other maidservants, or to
anybody else, Gupte pointed out.
Even in the statement recorded before magistrate, the
girl used the word 'atyachar' (atrocity) and did not mention
rape," he argued, adding that medical report too does not say
there was intercourse.
Gupte also mentioned that though the victim's vaginal
swab was taken for examination, medical report talks about
'slide', and not a swab. "What happened to swab?" he asked.
Refuting the lower court's observation that Shiney was
"influential person", and he may pressurise victim if released
on bail, Gupte said, "he is not on high pedestal of
acting...he is a small-time actor.
Argument would continue before Justice A P Deshpande
tomorrow.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, September 29, 2009, 21:15