A Delhi court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to Mumbai-based ET Now anchor Varun Hiremath, 28, who is an accused in a rape case.

The court noted that “consent cannot be implied from a victim's previous sexual experiences with the accused”, Indian Express reported on Wednesday.

The complainant has alleged that she was raped by Hiremath at a five-star hotel in Delhi’s Chanakyapuri on February 20. The journalist has been absconding since the complaint was filed last month, with the police accusing him of “evading the investigation”.

The court said, “Despite the fact that the accused and the prosecutrix were having a loving relationship and were indulged in sexual explicit talk, evidence of character or previous sexual experiences are not relevant in certain cases.”

The judge further noted that as far as the question of consent was concerned, “since the woman had stated in her evidence before the court that she did not consent, hence the court shall presume that she did not consent”.

While the defence tried to argue that consent could be implied from the fact that the woman travelled from Pune to Delhi to meet the accused and was “interested in going to the hotel room” with him, the court said, “In her complaint as well as her statement, she has stated that she feared injury if she attempted to escape the room. Therefore, she bowed down to the forcible demands of the accused.”