Married woman can’t claim lover raped her under false promise of marriage: Bombay HC

The accused had approached the high court and sought the quashing of the criminal proceeding against him

The Bombay high court has said that a married woman cannot accuse a third person of rape, on the grounds that he induced her to have physical relationship with him under false pretext of marriage and struck down a case of rape against a 30-year-old Wardha resident.

Potude’s wife got wind of the affairs, and she confronted the complainant (HT Photo)

The division bench of Justice RK Deshpande and Justice Arun Upadhye struck down criminal proceedings against Sachin Potude saying “the assertion made by the non-applicant No. 2 / complainant that she was induced to physical relationship by the applicant / accused on the basis of a promise to marry her” was “falsified” by the fact that the woman was married and her marriage was subsisting, although she was residing separately from her husband.

“It was not expected of her to be in physical relationship with a person other than the husband, particularly when she herself was married woman and her marriage subsisted on such dates,” the bench added.

In June 2013, the Wardha police had booked Potude under the charge of rape on the basis of a complaint lodged by the 26-year-old mother of one. According to the woman’s complaint, she was married and was having a child out of the marital relationship, but had been residing separately from her husband when she came in contact with Potude, one of her colleagues, who too was married at the time.

The accused had approached the high court and sought the quashing of the criminal proceeding against him, after the Wardha police filed a charge-sheet in the case in March 2014.