Court acquits man of charges of raping, forcibly marrying woman

A man, accused of raping a woman and forcibly marrying her by threatening to post her obscene pictures on social networking sites, has been freed by a Delhi court.

The court acquitted the Delhi resident as the woman retracted from her earlier statement and was declared hostile.

"Since the prosecutrix has not supported the case of the prosecution and there being no other eyewitness to the incident, it was found futile to carry on trial of the case any further," Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhatt said.

The court also acquitted the man of various charges including kidnapping and extortion.
An FIR was registered on July 11 last year, at Dabri Police Station on a complaint of the woman against the man alleging that he had raped her. The man's friends were also named in the FIR.

In her complaint, the woman alleged that the man was her engineering college friend and on May 26, 2012, he offered her a sedative laced soft drink and raped her at a hotel in Vaishali in Ghaziabad in the presence of his friends who had videographed the act.

She had alleged that she was threatened by the man that he would post her obscene video clips on social networking sites, if she did not agree to marry him and was forced to tie the knot with him at an Arya Samaj temple near Kashmere Gate here.

She also alleged that her family and she were blackmailed and extortion was done from time to time to pay him various amounts.

The man was arrested and a charge sheet was filed. The accused had pleaded not guilty.
During the trial, the woman resiled from her earlier statements and said that the man had neither raped her nor threatened her.

She also deposed that they had fallen in love and had solemnised their marriage at an Arya Samaj temple in Delhi with her consent and without any pressure or coercion.

The woman told the court that on account of temperamental differences and incompatibility, they could not live together after the marriage and had been living separately.

She added that there were no physical relations between them either before or after marriage.

The woman told the court that she had filed the complaint against the man as she had become annoyed and depressed on account of differences between them and for the reason that they have unable to live together even after marriage.

The court, while acquitting the man said, "It is seen that the woman has deposed totally contrary to the prosecution case. Nothing inculpatory against the accused has come in her testimony. It is, therefore, beyond any shadow of doubt that the accused had never committed any sexual assault upon the prosecutrix."