Ghaziabad resident acquitted of rape charge after victim tells court 'sex was consensual'

A man has been acquitted of charges of raping and beating his girlfriend, whom he later married, by a Delhi court after she retracted her statement.

The court freed the Ghaziabad resident while noting that the woman had deposed that physical relations between them were consensual.

"It is clear that the evidence of the prosecution is neither reliable nor believable and is not trustworthy and the prosecution has failed to establish rape.

"The evidence of the prosecutrix makes it highly improbable that such an incident ever took place. In fact, she has deposed that she had physical relations with the accused with her free consent," Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma said.

"The conscience of this court is completely satisfied that the prosecution has failed to bring home the charge against accused, for the offence under sections 376 (rape) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC," the court said.

The court noted that the woman said in her deposition that she has converted to Islam, changed her name and thereafter she got married to him on March 29 at Delhi.

Since then they are living together happily as husband and wife at Ghaziabad, she said.

A case was registered against the man on the complaint of the woman alleging that he had raped her on the evening of January 17 in Khayala area here and had also beaten her up.

The woman, however, later changed her statement. During cross examination, she deposed that about two years ago she had met the man, who developed friendship with her as he used to visit his maternal aunt (mausi) residing in her locality in Vishnu Garden.

She deposed that they started meeting very frequently and had physical relations with their free consent.

On January 17, the accused called her to meet him near a temple in Khayala at about 5.30 PM and took her to his aunt's residence where she established physical relations with him with her free consent, she told the court.

The woman claimed that she had lodged the complaint with the police at the instance and wrong advice of her well wishers after she and the man developed some misunderstanding over petty issues.

They got married in March 2014 after she converted to Islam and are living together, she said.

In her cross examination by the man's counsel, the woman admitted that he has not raped her and prayed for his acquittal.

"The prosecutrix has not deposed an iota of evidence of her being raped at all by the accused or that he gave beatings to her.

"She has not even mentioned the word 'rape' in her evidence nor has deposed anything incriminating against the accused," the court said.

"Consequently, no inference can be drawn that accused is guilty of raping the prosecutrix and of giving beatings to her. There is no material on record to suggest that the woman was ever raped and beaten by accused. No case is made out against the accused as there is no incriminating evidence against him," the court said.