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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court on Thursday allowed T-Series Managing Director Bhushan Kumar to withdraw his petition seeking to quash the rape case filed against him after the magistrate court accepted the closure report filed by the police.

Bhushan Kumar, the son of Gulshan Kumar, has been accused of repeatedly raping a woman under the pretext of offering her a job within his music record label and film production company.

The woman has claimed that she was subjected to multiple instances of sexual assault from September 2017 to August 2022.

The division bench of the high court, comprising Justice PD Naik and Justice NR Borkar, was informed by Advocate Niranjan Mudrangi that the Andheri Court had accepted the closure report filed in November 2023. 

A B Summary Report (Closure Report) is filed by the police after it is found that there is no prima facie evidence or the FIR was filed maliciously. 

The bench, upon being informed, accepted the statement made by Mudrangi and allowed the petition to be withdrawn.

Previously, when the bench was informed that the closure report was filed by the police, the bench had noted that the relationship was not consensual.

"Contents of (consent) affidavit is not sufficient to quash FIR. Generally under section 376, FIR can be quashed with consent of the complainant. But then that is after the FIR or the affidavit shows that there is a consensual relationship. Here the complainant is only saying she doesn’t want to proceed with the case due to ‘circumstantial misunderstanding," the court said.

In the previous hearing, the high court had also stated that the fact that the parties involved are consenting should not be the sole reason to quash the FIR under section 376 of the IPC.

Case title: Bhushan Kumar vs State of Maharashtra & Anr.