Complainant-woman remarried him, had a child': Supreme Court quashes criminal case against man and family

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has quashed a criminal case related to offences of gang rape, extortion and cheating lodged against a man and his brothers after noting the woman had re-married the accused, and became a mother of his child.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal also noted the girl had completely retracted and stated she lodged the FIR under pressure from her family and also obtained divorce from him from the family court.

Taking into record submission by the girl's counsel Balaji Srinivasan and Vishwaditya Sharma, the bench said, "In such view of the matter, continuing the criminal proceedings would amount to a travesty of justice."

The woman, being the complainant, had also filed an affidavit indicating her intention not to continue prosecuting the complaint.

The woman herself had approached the apex court for release of her husband and for quashing of the case after her husband was arrested pursuant to the Bombay High Court's order of July 4, 2023 which was passed in an application filed under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code by her husband and brother-in-law for quashing the proceedings.

The High Court by this order instead of quashing the complaint, directed the commissioner of police, Mumbai to appoint an officer of IPS cadre for investigation. It had further directed investigation against the earlier Investigating Officer. The High Court termed the present case as “an excellent example of, how insensitive the police can be and have scant respect towards the law of the land and the Constitution of India”

"The affidavit filed by the complainant makes it clear that she is not willing to prosecute the matter and has completely retracted from the earlier statement made by her. We have also been informed that the complainant has since married the appellant No 3 being accused No 1 and also has a child with him. We are inclined to set aside the impugned order and quash the criminal proceedings initiated against the appellants," the bench said.

The counsel submitted that it was a love marriage between the petitioner and second respondent Akash but due to family pressure upon the first petitioner, there was mutual divorce on a joint application of the parties before the Family Court, Thane.

However, she has since re-married her divorced husband on December 28, 2022. Despite this, and the conclusion by the police that false allegation under compulsion was levelled by the first petitioner against her husband and other members of his family, the High Court has rejected the petition under Section 482 CrPC filed by the family members, the counsel said.