The Delhi High Court has rejected anticipatory bail to a man in whose hotel a 16-year-old girl was raped multiple times for four days, noting that he facilitated the crime by running the hotel without a valid licence or maintaining guest list.
Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar observed that the man, who is the owner of the hotel and resides at the same place, cannot say that he was not aware of what was going on in his hotel and he cannot put the entire blame on the staffer of the hotel.
According to the victim, she was kept in the hotel for about four days where she was repeatedly raped by another man.
No record of guests
“First of all, the hotel was being run by the petitioner without any valid licence and no record of the guests was being maintained and no IDs were being taken,” the judge said, adding “had ID of the victim and the accused would have been taken at the time of the said booking, then the minor girl would have been saved”.
“By running this type of hotel and without keeping a record of the guests staying in the hotel, the petitioner is facilitating in crime and prosecutrix is one such victim in this case,” Justice Bhatnagar said.
With the testimony of the victim yet to be recorded and looking into the allegations and the seriousness of the offence, and the role played by the hotel owner, the court said, “no ground for bail is made out. The bail application is therefore dismissed”.
The FIR was registered in Dayalpur police station on March 5, 2021, on the complaint of the victim’s father.
The hotel owner argued that he has joined the investigation, and has cooperated in the same. He submitted that he has handed over the hotel register, in which entries are made with regard to the persons who stayed in the hotel.
The man pleaded that he is the owner of the hotel and has no role to play in bookings which are being done by the hotel staffers.
On the other hand, the public prosecutor said the victim had correctly identified the hotel and on her identification the co-accused was arrested.
