A man, accused of raping his sister-in-law cum business partner, has been acquitted by a city court on the ground that the physical relations between them were consensual.
The court said the woman lodged a complaint against him only when their relationship got exposed and she had no other reason of not reporting the matter if she was sexually assaulted by the man continuosly for three years.
“From the facts and circumstances of the case, it is gathered that relations between the accused and prosecutrix were consensual. When they made the relations, they were married and had been living with their spouses. They were quite matured. They used to do the business jointly.
“When their relations got exposed and business dispute arose, she lodged the complaint making such accusation.
Otherwise, there was no reason for the prosecutrix not to report the matter if she was sexually exploited by the accused for three years,” Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain said.
The court, while acquitting the Delhi resident, said it would be highly unsafe to base his conviction on the woman’s testimony which does not appear to be trustworthy and it was full of improvements and embellishments.
According to the prosecution, the woman lodged a complaint with the police in November 2013, against the man alleging that he has been exploiting her for past three years and had made a false promise of marriage.
She had also said that the man had proposed to do business with her which she had accepted because of being a relative. But thereafter, he started taking advantage and allured her to have physical relations with her.
During the trial, the man claimed he had never established physical relations with the woman and had a business dispute with her and her husband who had to pay him Rs 25 lakh, due to which they falsely implicated him.
( Source – PTI )
