Man acquitted of charge of raping married woman

A Delhi court has acquitted a man of charges of raping a woman, who had alleged that he developed sexual relations with her on a false promise of marriage, saying he could not have tied the knot with her even if he wanted as she was already married.
Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma freed the man, a resident of Uttam Nagar, saying the FIR was lodged after a delay of about three years which was fatal to the prosecution story and delay has not been satisfactorily explained by the 23-year-old woman or the Delhi Police.
The court said that it failed to comprehend as to how the allegations of false promise of marriage and rape have been raised by the woman as she being already married could not have married the other man during the subsistence of her marriage.

"It is apparently clear that the prosecutrix had herself got involved physically with the accused during the subsistence of her marriage with her husband.
"In such a situation the accused could not have married the prosecutrix, even if he wanted to, as she herself was not capable of marrying him being already married herself," the court said.
There was no occasion for the accused to offer marriage to her and then her accepting the same and questioning him as to when he would marry her since such a marriage is legally not permissible, it said.

The court while acquitting the man of all the charges said it was crystal clear that the woman had physical relations with the accused voluntarily and with her free consent and it was without any misconception of facts or any false promise of marriage.

According to the prosecution, the woman had lodged an FIR against the man in December 2011 alleging that from past three years he had repeatedly raped her.
She alleged that the first incident took place when the man had offered her a sedative-laced cold drink and after consuming it, she became unconscious and was raped by him.
The man had also taken her nude photographs and made a video, He threatened to upload them on Internet and throw acid on her face, if she disclosed the incident to anyone, she alleged.