Delhi court convicts PWD engineer for rape

A court here has convicted a junior engineer of the Public Works Department (PWD) for raping a woman employee by concealing his marital status to obtaining her consent for physical relations.

Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat convicted Akshay Kumar, a Delhi resident, saying that the consent given by the woman was "not voluntary".

The court said the woman would not have consented to physical relations with the man if he had not concealed his marital status from her.

"It is manifest beyond doubt that the victim had given consent to the physical relation with him on the belief that he is a widower and would marry her," the court said.

The court also relied on the DNA reports of the woman's twin daughters to establish that the man fathered them.

As per police, Akshay Kumar, who was working as a junior engineer with the PWD, had privately employed the woman, a divorcee, to assist him in his office work.

Akshay Kumar, who was already married, presented himself as a widower and established physical relations with the woman on the pretext of marrying her.

Police said they performed a symbolic marriage at a temple after which the woman gave birth to twin daughters.

Akshay Kumar refused to get the marriage registered, after which the woman lodged a complaint against him.

During the trial, Akshay Kumar confessed to having physical relations with the woman but said it was established with mutual consent.

The judgment was delivered Jan 16, but was made available to the media Monday. The court is yet to pronounce the quantum of sentence.