The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed an FIR against a man who was accused of raping a woman on the pretext of marriage, saying the complaint was nothing but a “bundle of lies” and that no material on record was produced to substantiate the allegations.
The court observed that the FIR was full of fabricated and malicious, unsubstantiated allegations levelled by the complainant.
A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said allowing prosecution of the accused would be a travesty of justice and a gross abuse of the process of the court, reported PTI.
The court observed that there were inherent contradictions in the statements of the woman.
"The de facto complainant is a highly educated woman aged 30 years. In the FIR of 2021, she has only alleged a single sexual encounter. On the contrary, in the impugned FIR of 2022, 4-5 such incidents have been referenced, each of which antedate the FIR of 2021," the court said.
"It is thus inherently improbable that the complainant would have forgotten or omitted to mention these incidents of sexual intercourse made under a false promise of marriage," the bench said.
What was the case about?
{{/usCountry}}"It is thus inherently improbable that the complainant would have forgotten or omitted to mention these incidents of sexual intercourse made under a false promise of marriage," the bench said.
What was the case about?
{{/usCountry}}The court was hearing a plea filed by the man against an order of the Telangana High Court. The lower court had rejected his plea to quash the rape complaint against him.
The Supreme Court further said the woman had filed a similar complaint against an assistant professor of Osmania University, where the woman was a student.
The top court said the woman, in chats on her phone, admitted that she was manipulative and was trying to "get a green card holder".
"At one point in time, she also stated that it would not be difficult for her to trap the next one. In the very same breath, she mentions that she would not waste time with the accused appellant and needs to invest in the next victim. She also mentions that she would irritate her victims to the extent that they dump her, and she could happily start with the next one. She also stated that she was using the accused appellant. These chats depict the stark reality about the behavioural pattern of the de facto complainant who appears to be having manipulative and vindictive tendency," the bench noted, according to PTI.
The court further said the accused was justified in panicking and backing out from the proposed marriage after coming to know about her "aggressive" sexual behaviour and the "obsessive nature" of the complainant.
"Hence, even assuming that the accused appellant retracted from his promise to marry the complainant, it cannot be said that he indulged in sexual intercourse with the de-facto complainant under a false promise of marriage or that the offence was committed by him with the complainant on the ground that she belonged to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes community," the bench said.
With inputs from PTI