Woman turns hostile, man acquitted of rape

CHANDIGARH: A Chandigarh district court on Thursday acquitted a 24-year-old man of charges of raping a 27-year old model in 2018, after the complainant turned hostile.

On August 29, 2018, the woman had told the police, “I work as a model. In 2016, I met the accused, who introduced himself as Raj Singhania. He offered me roles in Punjabi songs, but I refused. After befriending me, he proposed marriage to me. When I told him that I do not want to marry for three-four years, he said he will wait for me.”

Days later, the accused called her to his house in the city. “He bolted the door from inside and forced himself upon me. Thereafter, he raped me several times on the pretext of marriage. I later learned that his name was not Raj Singhania but Beeru Ram and that he had no family business as he had been claiming. And when I asked him to marry me, he refused. He threatened to kill my family if I spoke about the incident,” she added in the FIR.

The woman then approached the police.

During the trial, the defense counsel argued that the accused has been implicated and that the incident never took place in Chandigarh. “The allegations of rape are false as it was a consensual relationship between the complainant and the accused,” he added.

But with the complainant turning hostile, the court acquitted the accused.