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Court acquits retired Haryana bureaucrat in rape case

Last Updated 01 August 2016, 12:57 IST

A Delhi court has acquitted a retired Haryana bureaucrat in a rape case, observing that in many cases when a consensual physical relation breaks, women use the law "as a weapon for vengeance or personal vendetta".

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain freed the accused, a former principal secretary to a Haryana chief minister, of the charge under section 376(2)(n) (raping a woman repeatedly) of IPC, saying the woman threatened him and lodged a false complaint as he did not succumb to her illegal demands.

"Many of the cases are being reported by those women who   have consensual physical relationship but when relationship breaks due to one or the other reason, the woman uses the law as a weapon for vengeance and personal vendetta," the judge said while citing another court's judgement.

"I find that the woman was engaged in liaison work and used to contact senior bureaucrats and officials of various departments. She also contacted the accused and when she did not get much response from him, she sent him threatening messages and demanded money. When the accused did not succumb to her illegal demands, she lodged the complaint," the judge said.

The court noted that the complainant's testimony was full of
"embellishments and exaggeration" which do not find support from the oral and documentary evidence.

The court said that the woman had demanded Rs 50  lakh from the accused to patch up the matter and had also threatened to expose him before the media and spoil his life.

"When accused did not respond, she sent messages giving him threats that she was going to lodge a report. The woman did not even deny having sent the messages...I find that she  had sent
threatening messages to the accused that in case he  did not pay her money, she would lodge complaint against him and ruin his life," the judge said. 

The court said that though conviction can be based on the sole testimony of the victim, in such cases which cast a doubt in the mind of the judge, it is not safe to rely on the victim's uncorroborated version.

"I am conscious of the legal proposition that the  conviction in such cases can be made on sole testimony of the prosecutrix even without any medical corroboration and the version of the victim in rape commands great respect and   acceptability but if there are some circumstances which cast  doubt in the mind of the court of the veracity of victim's evidence then it is not safe to rely on the uncorroborated version of the victim of rape," the judge observed.

According to the prosecution, it was alleged that the woman, who had come from Mumbai for business, had met the accused through a common friend for professional purpose in December 2009.

Later, the accused invited her to Haryana State Guest House and after a few meetings he proposed to her and promised her that he will divorce his wife to marry her, it said.

It said she consented to the proposal and they had physical relations but their affair ended in 2012 when the accused deserted her on the ground that he would not be able to face his daughter if she found about their relationship.

The accused had denied the allegations and claimed he had started avoiding her because of her unreasonable demands and threats.

He stated that a false case was registered against him  without making preliminary inquiry and she had given a false statement to extort money and to blackmail him.

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(Published 01 August 2016, 12:57 IST)

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