The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the plea of a rape survivor from Kerala to marry her assaulter, a defrocked priest. The apex court also dismissed plea of the defrocked priest Robin Vadakkumcherry seeking bail to marry the rape survivor, who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment under POCSO for raping and impregnating her while she was a minor.
The Court also rejected a petition filed by Robin Vadakkumcherry seeking suspension of his sentence to marry the survivor. The survivor had supported his plea saying that she wanted marriage to escape the social stigma and to give legitimacy to the child who was born out of the sexual crime. A Bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari said that it saw no reason to disturb the High Court’s order refusing to suspend Robin’s sentence to marry the rape survivor. In her petition, she had claimed that that the child is of school-going age, and hence the father’s name need to be mentioned in the school admission application form. Robin Vadakkumcherry, who had initially tried to frame the woman’s biological father, was found guilty by a POCSO court in 2019 after she turned hostile as she claimed that they had a consensual relationship. On February 16, the Kerala High Court dismissed a plea of the former priest seeking bail to marry the survivor saying that it has no merit.
