Delhi: Man acquitted of rape charge after girl changes statement

New Delhi: A man, who was accused of raping a 20-year-old girl on a false promise of marriage, has been freed by a Delhi court after she told the court that they consensual relationship and were now married.

Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja absolved the man, a north Delhi resident, of the charge of rape under section 376 of the IPC after the girl, who had lodged a complaint against him, told the court that she had established physical relations with him with her consent.

"In the light of deposition of the girl wherein she deposed physical relations were established with accused with her consent and now, she has married him and living happily with him, I find that there is no material on record whatsoever for convicting him for the offence with which he was charged. Consequently, the accused is acquitted of the offence under Section 376 (rape) of IPC," the judge said.

"A bare perusal of the testimony of prosecution witness 1 (girl), on whose complaint the case has been registered, reveals that she failed to support the case of the prosecution in its entirety," the court also said.

According to the prosecution, the girl, a native of Bihar, lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police that on July 30, 2014, she was sitting at the gate of a colony in Burari, where the accused was selling ice creams on his stall. He started talking to her and proposed her marriage, it said, adding that believing him, she went along with him to his rented room nearby.

The man then established physical relations with her and took her to a bus stand where he left her and did not return, it said. The girl then lodged a complaint against him and the man was arrested the next day. She, however, resiled from her statement in the court by saying that she had established physical relations with him at her own free will and did not want any action against him.

The court noted that the girl, in her statement before it, said that she had married the man in September this year and was living happily with him. The court relied on her statement and acquitted the accused who had also denied the allegations against him.