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.
(Source : PTI)
