Man can’t be charged with kidnapping if minor voluntarily elopes with him, says Chhattisgarh HC

The Chhattisgarh High Court has held that a person cannot be booked for kidnapping if a minor elopes with him voluntarily, reported Bar and Bench on Saturday.

With this, the court on Thursday acquitted a 24-year-old man who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act after a 15-year-old girl eloped with him in September 2022.

“There is no evidence on record that at any point of time the appellant solicited or persuaded the victim to leave her home forcefully,” a bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.

The bench added: “The victim had voluntarily accompanied the appellant and remained with him without any resistance or complaint.”

The case against the man was registered in September 2022 when the girl’s father registered a complaint after she did not return from school.

The girl had eloped with the man to Raipur and then to Hyderabad. She then travelled with him to Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada and eventually reached Agrapalli.

They stayed together in Agrapalli for nearly a month.

Meanwhile, the police traced her based on her father’s complaint. In October 2023, a trial court sentenced the man to 20 years in jail.

He challenged the judgement before the High Court. During the hearing, his counsel told the court that it was the girl who had suggested eloping and had stayed with the man willingly for a month.

On the other hand, the state’s counsel argued that she was a minor and hence, her consent was immaterial, reported Bar and Bench.

After examining the girl’s statement, the High Court held that there was no material to show that the accused had persuaded her to leave home, which was essential to establish kidnapping.

On charges of the girl being sexually abused, the court held that “there is no corroborative evidence placed by the prosecution to prove the guilt of the accused”.