The Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted a man accused of raping a woman on the pretext of marrying her, noting that the accuser was "mature enough to understand" the consequences of her actions.
The top court came down heavily on the woman, who was already married, for wrongly framing the man for rape, as the accused's counsel argued that the relationship was "consensual".
"It is not a case where the complainant was of an immature age who could not foresee her welfare and take the right decision. She was a grown lady, about 10 years elder to the appellant,” the bench of Justices C T Ravikumar and Rakesh Bindal said.
The court, acquitting the accused Vinod Gupta, said the woman was “mature and intelligent enough to understand the consequences of the moral and immoral acts for which she consented during subsistence of her earlier marriage. In fact, it was a case of betraying her husband.”
The top court also noted discrepancies between the FIR and the statement of the complainant recorded before the Magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
Advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, appearing for the accused, argued that the FIR was nothing but an abuse of the legal process.
According to the FIR, the woman stated that she was managing her shop and was not staying with her husband due to some disputes, and she got divorced in 2018.
Meanwhile, Gupta approached the woman to rent the first floor of her house, and the two gradually developed a physical relationship. He proposed to marry her if she got a divorce.
The FIR alleged that when the woman insisted on getting married after her divorce, Gupta told her that his family was not agreeing and refused to marry her.
Published On:
Mar 7, 2024
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