Kerala High Court grants anticipatory bail to rapper Vedan, accused of rape on false marriage promise. File Photo: Special Arrangement
The Kerala High Court on Wednesday (August 27, 2025) granted anticipatory bail to Malayalam rapper Hirandas Murali, aka Vedan, who had been charged with raping a young woman doctor multiple times between 2021 and 2023 on the false promise of marriage.
A Bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas observed that his custodial interrogation was not needed, although the charges against him were of serious nature.
The Thrikkakara police had registered against Vedan earlier this month based on a complaint by the young doctor from Kozhikode. This was after she approached the Kochi Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) with a complaint that Vedan sexually assaulted her in Kochi and Kozhikode on multiple occasions from 2021 to 2023 on the assurance of marriage.
In his bail petition, Vedan had alleged that he and his managers used to get calls threatening to implicate him in such a case. This was an orchestrated campaign by a group of persons conspiring to malign his reputation and extort money by filing false complaints, he claimed.
He said the woman had approached him as a fan and that the relationship was consensual. The complaint was filed after they fell out due to incompatibility.
The doctor contended that she belonged to the same caste as Vedan and that her consent for a physical relationship was procured fraudulently by Vedan, without having any intention to marry her. After believing him, she even gave him money to release his songs and to purchase train tickets.
The court said that it is baffling and difficult to comprehend how the doctor permitted him to remain in her apartment for three days and even later on when they regularly engaged in physical relationship, after he is said to have raped her the first time. This prima facie is suggestive of a consensual relationship.
Labelling physical intimacy as rape after a relationship ceased to exist is illogical and harsh. In this case, there is no allegation that the alleged promise of marriage was, from the very first instance, false. Thus, denying anticipatory bail to the petitioner would result in serious prejudice, the court added and granted him pre-arrest bail.
“That a new case was registered against him on the basis of a complaint, by yet another woman, is not a matter of consideration in the present case,” the court added.
Published – August 27, 2025 05:10 pm IST
