Victim Being An Adult Lady Could Not Have Been A Prey To The Promise To Marry Concept: Calcutta HC Acquits Rape Accused
|The Calcutta High Court set aside conviction of a rape accused observing that the victim being an adult lady could not have been a prey to the promise to marry concept.
The High Court was considering appeal challenging conviction of a man accused of raping a woman on false pretext of marriage.
The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Ananya Bandyopadhyay held, “The victim being an adult lady could not have been a prey to the promise to marry concept foregoing her knowledge of subsequent possibilities, probabilities and eventualities if such promise was not acted upon.”
Advocate Malay Bhattacharya represented the Appellant while Advocate Rudradipta Nandy represented the State.
The High Court was considering an appeal preferred against the judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge thereby convicting the appellant for the offence punishable under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and sentencing him to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 7 years and to fine of Rs.1000.
It was the case of the prosecution that the victim lodged a written complaint alleging the complainant and the appellant being romantically involved, had eloped. On an assurance of marriage the appellant and the complainant indulged in physical relationship several times at her house in the absence of her parents and thereafter the complainant became pregnant. The appellant insisted that she aborts and he also refused to marry her. The complainant lodged the complaint when she was 9 months pregnant.
The Appellant’s Advocate contended that a belief that the promise of marriage was meant to be fulfilled was not a misconception of fact. In the instant case the consent was not obtained by fraud rather on a promise of an act at a future uncertain date and the same did not fall within the definition of rape. It was also contended that from the said complaint it could never be construed that the consent of the victim was obtained on the basis of false promises and only for sexual pleasure and as such the allegations against the appellant were unjustified.
The victim girl had deposed that she was abandoned just after being pregnant. She gave birth to a female child and the father of the victim girl deposed the victim to have been in a romantic relationship with the appellant who on promise to marry her ravished her.
The Bench was of the opinion that the victim lady being an adult admitted of an affair to have been developed with the appellant and subsequently did not resist a sexual relationship with the appellant on promise of marriage. Due to a prolonged sexual relationship the victim eventually became pregnant and on such revelation the appellant refused to marry her and suggested termination of her pregnancy.
The Bench also noted that the victim after a lapse of considerable time being nearly a year on her 9th month of pregnancy lodged a complaint at the police station against the appellant and the relationship between the parties was indubitably consensual. The victim lady being an adult was aware of the consequences of such relationship and denial on the part of the appellant to marry her would entail wide ramification, it stated.
In the instant case, the victim had categorically stated that she willingly and without resistance got physically involved with the appellant reaffirming and fortifying her consent to such an act.
The Bench said, “Mere assertion or claim on the part of the victim to have been impregnated by the appellant without proper evidence in case of consenting parties to a sexual relationship cannot possibly indict a person.”
Thus, asserting that the prosecution failed to prove its case, the Bench allowed the appeal.
Cause Title: Biswanath Murmu V. The State of West Bengal [Case no.- C.R.A. 562 of 2011]
Appearance:
Appellant: Advocates Malay Bhattacharya & Sudipa Sengupta
State: Advocates Rudradipta Nandy & Iqbal Kabir