A Delhi court has acquitted a man of the charge of raping a woman after intoxicating her, saying they were in a live-in relationship and the physical relation between them was consensual.
Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar II absolved the man, who was accused of raping the woman on the false promise of marriage, noting that she was married already so there was no question of being misled by the accused.
"As per the prosecutrix (woman) she had not taken divorce from her husband and her marriage with him was still persistent, hence, there is no question of her being misled by accused on false promise of marriage. More so from her testimony it is crystal clear that prosecutrix and accused were in a live-in relationship," the judge said.
According to the prosecution, an FIR was lodged on January 1, 2015 under sections 328 and 376 of the IPC against accused Sita Ram Sharma on the complaint of a woman alleging that on the night of December 31, 2014 he made her consume a sedative laced coffee after which she became unconscious and then taking advantage of her condition, he raped her.
The accused, through his counsel Prashant Diwan, denied the allegations and contended that he had arranged a rented accommodation for the woman and they were living in together but she wanted extort money from him so implicated him in the false rape case.
The court accepted the contention of the accused and said the woman's story was untruthful.
"Circumstances emanating from the evidence adduced by prosecution, story put by prosecutrix gets belied and the case which comes out from the evidence is that prosecutrix has been live-in relation with the accused, who established physical relation with her with her free will," it said.
While allowing the accused to walk free, the court said, "The circumstances emerging from the evidence clearly establish that it was the case of consensual relation. Hence this court is of the view that prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt against the accused. Accordingly he is acquitted.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)