Court frees man of charge of raping woman on marriage promise

A man, accused of raping a woman after promising to marry her, has been acquitted by a Delhi court which held that it cannot be said that he obtained her consent by misrepresenting any facts.

Additional sessions judge Bharat Parashar acquitted Uttar Pradesh native Puneet Kumar Tripathi of various charges including kidnapping the woman with an intent to force her to have illicit relations and raping her. Puneet's friend Kamlesh was also acquitted of kidnapping charges.

"Even otherwise the statement made by the woman under Section 164 CrPC shows that she had sexual intercourse with accused Puneet with her free will though under the promise of marriage," the court said.

"Thus even if it is presumed that accused had sexual intercourse with the woman on the promise of marriage then also it cannot be concluded that he had sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix against her will or consent or that any such consent was obtained under any misrepresentation of facts," it said.

It gave benefit of doubt to both the accused and acquitted them saying that prosecution has failed to prove that accused had sexual intercourse with the woman on the day of incident.

"...but even otherwise if it is presumed for the sake of arguments that such an incident took place then also it cannot be concluded that merely on the promise of marriage promised to be solemnised after five years, the act of sexual intercourse which both accused and prosecutrix willingly had can amount to an act of rape," it said.

According to the prosecution, the woman's mother had lodged a complaint at Vasant Kunj North Police Station alleging that Puneet had raped her daughter and threatened to kill her, if she disclosed the incident to anyone.