Delhi court frees man in rape case, says it was extra-marital affair

A man accused of raping a married woman on the false promise of marriage has been acquitted by a Delhi court, which observed it was a case of an "extra-marital affair being converted into rape".

The court said the married woman, who had four children, got involved in the affair during subsistence of her marriage and to save herself from "embarrassment", filed a false case against her paramour when her husband came to know about their relation.

"This trend of extra-marital affairs being converted into rape cases is coming up as several such cases have been filed in court on similar allegations.

When a woman herself is not in a capacity to marry another man during the subsistence of her marriage, then why should her paramour be prosecuted, incarcerated and be tried for rape when it is actually just an extra-marital affair.

"This kind of unscrupulous litigation is required to be nipped in the bud itself," Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma said, adding with changing times, the understanding of "morality" is also changing.

The court acquitted Moti Nagar resident Samir of the charges of rape and cheating, saying there is no material on record that the 25-year-old woman was forced into physical relations by the accused on a false promise of marriage.

"In fact what emerges from the evidence of prosecutrix is that there appears to be an element of an extra-marital affair between her and the accused which came within the knowledge of her husband due to which she left or was made to leave her matrimonial home and consequently the rape case was lodged (against accused) probably to save embarrassment for herself and maintain relations with her husband," the court said.

According to the prosecution, the woman filed a complaint with the police alleging that from January to April 20, this year, Samir repeatedly raped her on the false promise that he would marry her.

In her statement in court, the woman said whenever she used to go to the terrace of her house, Samir used to follow her and try to develop friendship with her.

The woman claimed that as she was married, she did not pay heed to him but he threatened that he would consume poison and asked her to marry him.

One day, he took her to his friend's house where they entered into a physical relationship, and thereafter they met each other several times, she said.

When Samir went to Bihar for a few days, her husband came to know about the relationship and turned her out of the house.

When she informed Samir about it, he too abused her and refused to marry her, she alleged.

The court, however, said the woman's version was "inconsistent and contradictory" and the circumstances reveal that she had established physical relations with Samir on her own and there is nothing on record to show that he ever committed any offence, as alleged.

It seems that in order to save her marriage, the prosecutrix has lodged the case against the accused, putting the entire blame on him, the judge said.

"It is saddening to note that when the prosecutrix, a married woman, gets involved in an extra-marital affair, in order to save her marriage, she is projecting herself to be a victim and her paramour to be a culprit and guilty of raping her on a false promise of marriage when she herself cannot marry another man," the judge observed.