Mumbai: The sessions court has acquitted a 36-year-old NRI scientist working in the USA, booked for rape on the complaint of an event manager, after the court found that the relation between the two was consensual. The court said that she had made a reasoned choice to be with the man, knowing all the consequences.
About The Case
The complaint against the scientist was lodged with the Sahar police station by the woman on January 6, 2020. She claimed to have met the accused through a matrimonial website. She had married a man of a different faith in 2012, separating in 2016. In September 2019, her sister created a matrimonial profile, which was accessed by the scientist from Ahmedabad and then working in Europe.
On December 18, 2019, he came to India, and the two met for New Year celebrations on December 31. The woman claimed she had informed him about her marital status, but the profile showed ‘unmarried’. After the party, she claimed he spiked her drink and sexually exploited her, but later went out again for an early morning party. The man, however, claimed she had suppressed the fact that she was still married and her divorce had not come through. Besides, she had converted to a different faith.
The court noted that there is no circumstance or document on record to show that the accused had reason to know the marital status and religion of the victim before their meeting. It observed, “Whenever a woman makes a reasoned choice to establish physical relations after fully understanding the consequence of such action, the ‘consent’ cannot be said to be based on misconception of fact until and unless there is a clear evidence that a false promise with no intention of upholding the same was given by the maker at the time of making the promise.”
