Consensual Sex Between Couple In A Relationship Cannot Be Held As Rape, Rules Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court has acquitted a man of rape charges field by woman who accused him of rape after he refused to marry her. The Goa branch of Bombay high court has set aside a seven-year jail term and Rs 10000 fine awarded by a trial court against the accused for raping a woman. In its ruling the court noted that there was evidence of a deep love affair between the two when they had a physical relationship. The accused Yogesh Palekar was in 2013...Read More
The Bombay High Court has acquitted a man of rape charges field by woman who accused him of rape after he refused to marry her.
The Goa branch of Bombay high court has set aside a seven-year jail term and Rs 10,000 fine awarded by a trial court against the accused for raping a woman after giving false promise to marry her. In its ruling, the court noted that there was evidence of "a deep love affair" between the two when they had a physical relationship.
The accused, Yogesh Palekar who was in 2013 working as chef in a casino in Goa was in a relationship with a colleague.
One day, Palekar took the woman to his home in the pretext of introducing her to his family. His family was not at home and she stayed back for the night. They had sexual intercourse and the next morning he dropped her home. Later, they had sexual intercourse at his residence on three or four occasions.
However, the relationship became sour after Palekar refused to marry her claiming that she was from a lower caste.
BCCL/Representational Image
Following this, the woman filed a complaint of rape against Palekar and stated that she had agreed for sexual intercourse as he had promised to marry her.
Justice C V Bhadang held that the evidence clearly showed that ¡°the consent could not be said to be based only on the promise made by Palekar, but was out of love affair¡± between the two. ¡°Even after this, their relationship continued,¡± the court noted,
The court also added that the woman ¡°used to provide the appellant financial help for his daily needs and both of them had sex on 3-4 occasions¡± in his house. ¡°It can thus be clearly seen that there was a clear consent on the basis of which they had a physical relationship,¡± the court said.
The woman, the judge said, also ¡°went to the extent of withdrawing¡± her complaint by filing an affidavit as the man was undergoing treatment at the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour in Goa for depression. She cited emotional and personal reasons for her decision.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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