A man accused of raping a girl for seven years on false promise of marriage has been let off by a Delhi court as there was no evidence to suggest that the 'victim' was not a consenting party to it.
"Having regard to the statement made by the prosecutrix (victim), this court finds that the prosecutrix has made self-contradictory statement about her consent in having sexual relationship with the accused," Additional Sessions Judge Narinder Kumar said.
The prosecution case was that Faridabad-resident Karim alias Raju had become acquainted with the alleged victim in year 2003, when she was 18-year-old.
Thereafter, he established physical relations with her on several occasions promising to marry her but kept delaying the marriage on the pretext that his mother was a cancer patient.
On May 19, 2009, the girl went to meet Karim, who asked her to stay the night with him on the pretext that he is going to marry her the next day in court.
The next morning, she was asked to wait for him at a given spot in Central Delhi but he did not turn up and that is when she lodged a police complaint against him alleging rape on false promise of marriage.
The court noted that the girl had in her cross-examination said her family wanted to marry her off to Karim but later discovered that he is already married.
She said she continued to meet him of her own consent and that of her family and the case was lodged due to bitterness in their relationship.
She made self-contradictory statements about her consent in having sexual relationship with Karim.
The court also noted that the girl and her family also intended to marry her off to the accused and that 'the prosecution has failed to substantiate the allegations levelled against the accused that he did commit rape on the prosecutrix on the pretext of marrying her.'