French diplomat accused of raping daughter gets bail

The Karnataka High Court has granted bail to Pascal Mazurier, the French consulate official accused by his wife of raping his four-year-old daughter. The court has said that Mazurier, who was arrested on 19 June, cannot leave India, and he has also been asked to surrender his passport. There are still no details on how much he will have to pay as a personal bond. Mazurier, who is the deputy Head of Chancery in the Consulate of France, was officially charged for the rape of his four-year-old daughter in a Bangalore court on 17 September, under section 376 (2F) of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to the rape of a girl under 12 years of age. [caption id=“attachment_493395” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mazurier leaving court after one of his appearances: IBN[/caption] He had sought bail on a number of occasions, citing discrepancies in the collecting of evidence in the case, but all his previous applications were rejected by the court. Mazurier, in his petition, had pointed out that as per the report of the test conducted by the Forensic Sciences Laboratory (Bangalore), his DNA profile did not match with that of the child. He has also accused his wife Suja Jones of framing him. The diplomat however, received some relief when the nanny employed with the family, jumped to his defence, saying he was not the type of person who would abuse his own daughter. This was significant, given that Suja reported the case to police with the help of a Bangalore-based NGO after she said her maid told her that her three-year-and-ten-month-old child was sexually abused.