New Delhi: A woman, found guilty of lodging a false rape case against a man with whom she later on tied the knot, has been spared of perjury proceedings by a Delhi court which hoped that as they were legally married they would start living happily without any bitterness.
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat, while sparing the woman from prosecution, observed that the present case was "another classic illustration of the misuse of rape laws."
"The prosecutrix (woman) deserves to be prosecuted for having set the police machinery in motion on false information and for giving false evidence before this court but I refrain from doing so for the reason that prosecutrix and accused are legally married couple and in the hope that they would forget their bitterness....and would start living together as husband and wife peacefully," the judge said.
While acquitting the Rajasthan-based man, a government servant, of the charges under sections 376 (rape) and 328 (administering stupefying substance) of IPC, the court said that every evidence leads to a "irresistible conclusion that there is no truth in the prosecution case".
"The prosecutrix had lodged a false complaint against the accused probably for the reason that she did not want to wait any further for marriage with the accused knowing fully well that he was not able to marry her before the marriage of his two grown up sisters," the court noted.
It said that the woman had used the police machinery to create pressure upon the accused to marry her at the earliest. Taking into account the photographs and certificate of marriage of the accused with the woman, the court said these leads credence to the fact that he never intended to cheat or deceive her and has fulfilled his promise.
According to the prosecution, the man, a railway ticket collector, had raped the woman on October 15, 2013 by offering some stupefying substance to her. Later on, he repeatedly raped her on the pretext of marriage.
The court, in its order, said there was "nothing mischievous or deceitful in the promise" held out by the accused to the prosecutrix that he would marry her only after the marriage of his two sisters.
"In Indian society it is the moral as well as social responsibility of a brother to see that his sisters get married before his own marriage. There is no evidence on record to suggest that the accused refused to marry the prosecutrix even after the marriage of his two sisters who were of marriageable age," the court said.
Taking note of the inconsistency in the statements of prosecutrix regarding offering of stupefying substance, the court said "this clearly indicates that no such incident has taken place and she has fabricated a false story in this regard."
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