A policeman, who raped a girl on false promise of marrying her, concealing his existing marriage and later faked his death to get rid of her, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by a city court.
Additional sessions judge Bimla Kumari jailed 23-year-old constable Somdev to 10 years in jail and also imposed on him a fine of `20,000 saying that establishing physical intimacy with a 20-year-old girl after obtaining her consent on false promise of marriage amounts to rape.
“Since he (Somdev) was already married, he was knowing well that during the subsistence of first marriage, he could not marry the prosecutrix (victim). The promise of marriage made by accused Somdev was merely a hoax,” ASJ Kumari said.
The court held that the girl’s consent was not valid in law, saying that Somdev was conscious of the fact that had he not promised to marry the victim, she would have never allowed him the physical intimacy with her.
Somdev had come in contact with the victim when she had gone to Sabzi Mandi police station in North Delhi to lodge a complaint in March 2009. They became friendly and Somdev started persuading her for physical relationship to which she consented after he promised to marry her.
The prosecution said that when the girl insisted for marriage, the constable threatened that he would commit suicide if she forces him.
A few days later, Somdev told her that he was going to Hyderabad for military training and after a few more days he got conveyed to her through one of his friends that he had died in an accident.
The girl, however, came to know about his fake death story after she made enquiries from the Sabzi Mandi police station and found that he was still serving there.
The girl then lodged a complaint and Somdev was arrested on December 4, 2009.
The court rejected his plea for leniency saying being in Delhi police, it was his duty to protect the honour and dignity of the victim.