The Calcutta High Court recently quashed a rape case against an accused on the grounds that the relationship between him and the victim was consensual in nature. The court noted that the victim had alleged that the accused had “raped her on the pretext of marrying her” but the issue of marriage only cropped up after a physical relationship was established between the two.
According to a report published by LiveLaw, a single judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh said it was clear that the physical relationship between the complainant and petitioner was consensual in nature as has also been established by prosecution witnesses, who were aware of the relationship.
“Having regard to the version of the complainant and the prosecution witnesses who were also aware regarding the relationship of the accused with the complainant particularly with regard to the narration of the facts that the complainant on her own had been to a hotel and it is only after the physical relationship, the issue regarding marriage cropped up, I am of the opinion that the principles settled hereinabove do apply in the facts and circumstances of the present case. As such the further continuance of the case and the consequent proceedings including the charge-sheet filed therein calls for interference,” the report quoted Justice Ghosh as saying.
The complainant had alleged that she had an affair with the petitioner and the two had been living together after he promised to marry her. The case against the petitioner was registered under sections 417 (punishment for cheating), 376 (punishment for rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. A chargesheet was submitted by the investigating officer, who relied upon 15 witnesses, of which eight were neighbours and acquaintances and the rest were two doctors and five police officials.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that if the allegations and documents relied upon by the prosecution were accepted to be true, they fail to make out any offence as both were consenting adults in a relationship. The high court noted that the complainant, in her statement, had mentioned that she was initially friends with the petitioner, who then proposed to her but she refused him.
“….after some days both of them had been to a hotel where she met a friend of the accused and his girlfriend. There in a separate room the accused forced her for physical relationship, as a result of which thereafter she became attached to the accused and such physical relationship continued. After sometime when the complainant requested him to marry her, the accused promised to marry but started evading her,” the court was quoted in the report.
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