Ghaziabad: An additional sessions court on Monday rejected the bail application of a man accused of helping his friend kidnap a minor for marriage last year. The court held that considering the nature and gravity of the crime, the punishment prescribed for it, and its impact on society, there was insufficient basis to release the accused on bail.The case was filed at Ankur Vihar police station on the complaint of a woman who said her minor daughter had gone to a shop to buy sweets on Oct 23, 2025, but had not returned. She said the family searched for the girl but could not trace her. The woman claimed that the same day, two men had allegedly called her and threatened to kidnap the girl. One of them claimed to like the girl and warned that he would “pick her up” if she was not handed over to him.An FIR was registered under BNS sections 137(2) (kidnapping), 352 (insult to provoke breach of peace), 351(2) and 351(3) (criminal intimidation) and 87 (kidnapping for forceful intercourse or marriage).Counsel for the applicant argued that he had been falsely implicated. “The FIR was filed four days late, and no explanation has been provided for the delay. There is no independent witness who saw my client kidnapping the minor. The victim was not recovered from his custody, and there are contradictions in the statements of the girl recorded before the police and magistrate,” he said.The special public prosecutor (Pocso Act), appearing on behalf of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and the state, opposed the bail application.The court noted that, according to the prosecution, the accused and his associates had abducted the minor and threatened to kill her. It also took note of a report by Ghaziabad chief medical officer, which stated that the girl’s age was 17 years.“In her statement under Section 180 of the BNSS, the victim said that on Oct 23, 2025, she was travelling alone from Loni to Mandola for Bhaidooj when she encountered her sister, brother-in-law and her sister’s daughter on the way. She was slapped by her elder sister and forced onto a bus to Panipat, where she met a second man whose family had arranged her marriage to him at a temple. Three days later, the man left her in Loni after sexually assaulting her,” the court noted, adding that in her statement under Section 183 BNSS, she said the applicant was present with her sister and that they had all forced her to marry at the temple.“The applicant’s complicity in the alleged incident is clearly visible, and he is a named accused in the FIR. The bail application of the co-accused was rejected on merits on Feb 3, so there is insufficient ground to set the accomplice free on bail,” special judge (Pocso Act) Neeraj Gautam said.
