Man acquitted of charge of raping widow on marriage pretext

A man has been acquitted of the charge of raping a widow on the pretext of marrying her, by a Delhi court which held that no assurance of marriage was given by him and instead she was interested in "extorting money" from him.

The court acquitted Uttam Nagar resident Pramod Kumar Mittal of the charge of rape and held that the woman's consent for sexual relations was not obtained by the man on the basis of any promise to marry and he did not indulge any sort of deception.

"She (woman) has stated very plainly and clearly (in her examination-in-chief) that she and the accused used to stay as husband and wife and sexual intercourse also used to take place between them regularly.

"She has nowhere stated that she consented to have physical relations with the accused only on his promise to marry her," Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said.
The court said that the woman was a widow having grown up children and had knowledge about the consequences of her sexual relations with the man.

"It is manifest that the woman was only interested in getting money from the man and she was not interested in marriage with him," it observed.

The judge said that according to the woman, she was raped by the man on February 13, 2013 when she had visited his residence. However, she did not narrate the incident to anybody nor did she lodge any complaint against him regarding rape, he said.

The court that even after the incident, the woman remained in contact with the man which made the allegation of rape "highly improbable and unbelievable".
According to the prosecution, Mittal had allegedly raped the woman on the false pretext of marriage.

The woman's husband died of paralysis in May 2007 and around three years ago, the woman and the man started residing together and established sexual relations, it said.