Woman Can’t Allege Rape After Six Years Of Consensual Sex: Karnataka HC

New Delhi: Citing it as a classic illustration of abuse of the process of law, the Karnataka HC quashed two criminal cases filed against a Bengaluru man by a woman, alleging breach of promise of marriage after being in a relationship for six years.

It is not one, two, three, four or five, but six years of consensual physical/sexual relationship between the petitioner and the complainant after having met through a social media platform. The complaint narrates all details… The allegation that is made later is, from Dec 27, 2019, the intimacy between the two waned. Fading away of the intimacy after 6 years of consensual acts of sexual intercourse cannot mean that it would constitute ingredients of rape, it said, according to a Times of India report.

Pointing out that the sexual relationship lasted six long years, the judge said it cannot but be construed that it would not be rape for it to become punishable under section 376 of IPC. “If further proceedings are permitted to continue, it would run foul of (a) plethora of judgments rendered by the Supreme Court on the issue,” the judge said, citing the Supreme Court judgment in Pramod Suryabhan Pawar vs State of Maharashtra case and a few other cases.

The petitioner had befriended the complainant through Facebook in 2013. According to her, since he was residing close by, she was always taken to his house on the pretext that he was a very good chef. He would prepare delicious food and every time she used to go to his house, drink beer and have sexual intercourse. After having a physical relationship with her on the promise of marriage for about six years, the petitioner broke the said promise. On March 8, 2021, she registered a complaint with Indiranagar police alleging cheating and criminal intimidation, among other things. Later, when she learnt that the petitioner, after getting bail, was living in Davanagere, the complainant went there and registered a complaint of assault and rape based on the same set of allegations. Another woman too was named along with the petitioner in the second complaint. The police had filed chargesheets in both cases.

The petitioner, along with the co-accused woman, challenged the proceedings. He alleged that the complainant is in the habit of making friends with the affluent, extract money and blackmail them by registering crimes. He also cited another case where the complainant had a physical relations with a man and then registered a similar case against him before the Airpo police station in Bengaluru, alleging breach of promise of marriage and rap among other things. The court was told that the man was acquitted in 2016 the woman turned hostile and reversed her statement.