Having sexual relations with a woman on false promise of marriage amounts to rape, the Delhi high court has said.
“Having sexual relations with a woman against her will or without her consent also amounts to rape under the IPC. If the consent was obtained on a false assurance or promise of marriage, the consent cannot be considered to be full and free and it would be a case of rape,” Justice R V Easwar said.
The court made the observation while rejecting anticipatory bail plea of Abhishek Jain in a case lodged by his wife alleging that he had sex with her prior to their marriage on the promise that he would marry her. He initially refused to marry her, but agreed later when the woman lodged a case against him.
“It would prima facie appear that the marriage was gone through only to persuade the complainant to withdraw her complaint of February 25, 2013. Immediately after the marriage, the applicant started physically abusing the complainant, apparently, in the hope that she would leave him,” the court said.
Referring to the FIR, the court said, “Several instances are narrated in the FIR about threats and physical abuse suffered by the complainant not only from the applicant but also by his family members who had conspired together to cheat her and get her married to him only to make her withdraw the complaint… against him.”
—PTI