Before Sex, Nobody Checks Aadhaar or PAN Card to Confirm Birth Date, Says Delhi HC While Granting Bail in Suspected Honeytrap Case

New Delhi, August 30: Granting bail to a man in a case of suspected honeytrap, the Delhi High Court said that a person in a consensual relationship is not required to check an Aadhaar or a PAN card to verify his partner’s date of birth before having sex.

The court also directed the police chief to carry a “detailed investigation” if the “victim” woman was a habitual offender who extorted money by lodging an FIR of rape against men, reported TOI.

Justice Jasmeet Singh while dealing with a case where the woman claimed she was a minor at the time of the crime and was first lured into consensual sex, then threatened and raped by the accused, said “The person, who is in a consensual physical relationship with another person, is not required to judicially scrutinise the date of birth of the other person. He is not required to see Aadhaar card, PAN card and verify the date of birth from her school record before he enters into a physical relationship.”

The court found several discrepancies in the woman’s version and also a money trail showing she had received Rs 50 lakh in her account from the accused over a period of nearly a year — the last payment made just a week before the FIR was registered and the stringent POCSO Act was invoked against him.

The judge cited an earlier court order observing an increase in cases where innocent people were being honeytrapped and huge amounts of money were being extracted from them. “I am of the view that in the present case, there is much more than what meets the eye... I am, prima facie, of the view that this also seems to be a case of such incident,” Justice Singh recorded in his order, directing the CP to “have a detailed investigation... if any such similar FIR has been registered by the prosecutrix against any other person in Delhi”.

Appearing for the man, advocate Amit Chaddha highlighted that the woman had three different dates of birth. As per the Aadhaar card, her date of birth is January 1, 1998, but in her PAN card, it’s 2004. When police verified, it found her date of birth to be of June 2005.

As per the Aadhaar card, “on the date of the alleged incident, the prosecutrix was supposed to be a major”, the court pointed out. It asked police to investigate the card number and the date of issuance of the same and the supporting documents. The very fact that there is an Aadhaar card that shows date of birth as January 1, 1998 is enough for the accused to “form an opinion that he was not indulging in physical relationship with a minor”, it added.

While granting bail, the court also referred to the transfers of huge amounts in her favour from June 2021 to April 2022.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 30, 2022 10:57 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).