Harish threatened her that he would circulate the video to her friends and also on social networking sites if she disclosed the incident to anyone, police said. He repeatedly raped her by administering her drugs and blackmailing her with the video. Due to effect of drugs, she could not remember what all had happened with her, it said. Finding no way out, the girl asked Harish to marry her but he refused. She then attempted suicide by consuming pesticides but was saved in the hospital, it said. She then disclosed everything to her parents and police and the accused was arrested in November 2011. The police also found pornographic material including videos in Harish's mobile phone. The court, in its judgement, said that it is a matter of concern that women are being drugged for the purpose of rape, through use of odourless, tasteless incapacitating drugs that leads to memory loss for that period and these drugs are freely available in the market. "The issue relating to free availability and sale of date rape drugs is a matter of national concern being an important subject connected with women health and safety. It is a known fact that detection of these drugs is a difficult issue and unless a victim of drug facilitated sexual assault seeks medical care within 72 hours of the assault, it is less likely that the tests would successfully detect the presence of these drugs, since most of them eliminate from the body, resulting into a negative report," it said. Due to the effect of these drugs, it is difficult for the victims to know if they consented or not for the act, it said. The court added for prosecutors also it is difficulty in proving the intent or lack of consent where the rape or assault happened without witnesses (particularly in a private home) and where both parties were consuming drugs or alcohol since neither was able to legally give consent.
