A Delhi court has acquitted a youth accused of marrying a 21-year-old girl after intoxicating and raping her, saying that sexual relations between a legally wedded husband and wife, ?even if forcible, is not rape?.
?It is evident that the prosecutrix (girl) had willingly and in full senses solemnised her marriage with the accused and the marriage was registered in the office of Registrar of Marriages, Ghaziabad, on March 4, 2013. The parties engaged in physical relations with each other after the marriage,? the court said.
While absolving the youth of the charge of rape, the court of Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said, ?The girl was more than 21 years old at the time. Thus, the girl and accused being legally wedded and the girl being a major, the sexual intercourse between the two, even if forcible, is not rape and no culpability can be fastened upon the youth.?
In her statement to police, the girl had claimed that she met the youth in 2013 while working at a coaching centre. She said the youth, along with his father, had given her a drink laced with sedatives, following which she fell unconscious. Thereafter, she claimed, the accused took her to the Registrar?s Office at Ghaziabad and got the marriage documents signed by her, she claimed.
Later, she alleged that the accused raped her and left her with the threat that in case she disclosed the incident to anybody, they would not spare her. The girl also claimed that the accused committed unnatural sex with her on several occasions, following which police charged the accused under sections of poisoning, rape, abduction and unnatural sex.
However, noting that the girl?s statement was ?inconsistent?, the court turned down her allegations saying ?there is no clinching or convincing evidence on record to show that the accused had administered any stupefying substance to the prosecutrix before taking her to the Ghaziabad court?.
