Woman raped on pretext of marriage by Facebook friend

A 28-year-old woman was allegedly raped on the pretext of marriage by a man whom she befriended on Facebook, police said on Sunday.

An FIR was registered yesterday at Shyam Nagar police station on a complaint filed by the victim in the local court here, they said.

The accused Ranjan Pandey, aged between 25-30 years, hails from Jharkhand and was working in Mukhtsar district of Punjab.

He came in touch with the woman, who is a divorcee, through social networking site Facebook about 2-3 years ago, police said.

In her complaint, the woman said that they have been meeting in Jaipur and other places for the past 2-3 years during which period Ranjit had promised to marry her.

The victim alleged that the accused refused to marry her recently following which she filed a complaint, police said.

"The case would be taken up soon, as the complaint was registered just last night," SHO, Shyam Nagar police station, KR Choudhary said. The woman would be contacted to record her statement while the search to trace the accused in Mukhtsar would begin soon, he added.

A case under various sections of IPC including 376 (Punishment for Rape) and 120 B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) have been registered against the accused, the SHO said.