SRINAGAR: The J&K high court has granted anticipatory bail to a police sub-inspector accused of sexually exploiting a woman constable on the false promises of marriage, observing that prima facie, the relationship appeared to be consensual.The constable had alleged that the SI, Vikrant Kotwal, deliberately concealed his marital status to trap her into a relationship after they came in contact in Sept 2024 while posted at Samba police station. He repeatedly promised to marry her in order to continue the sexual relationship even as he persuaded her to terminate two pregnancies, and abandoned her after she became pregnant a third time, she alleged.
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Kotwal was booked under multiple BNS sections after a departmental inquiry, carried out on the constable’s complaint, recommended a proper investigation.Kotwal moved HC after the court of principal sessions judge in Jammu’s Samba district dismissed his anticipatory bail plea on July 23.In his order, Justice Sanjay Dhar said considering their prolonged relationship, especially even after the woman discovered that the SI was married and had children, it “would be inconceivable that the same would not be consensual in nature”.