New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday quashed an FIR against a man accused of raping a woman on the pretext of marriage and under provisions of SC/ST Act, noting that there was no material on record to substantiate the allegations.
The top court said the FIR was nothing but a “bundle of lies” full of fabricated and malicious, unsubstantiated allegations levelled by the complainant.
A bench of 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 court.
The top court said there was great variance in the allegations levelled by the woman and noted inherent contradictions in the statements.
“The de-facto complainant is a highly educated woman aged 30 years. In FIR of 2021, she has only alleged about 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.
“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.
The court was hearing a plea filed by the man challenging an order of the Telangana High Court which rejected his plea to quash the FIR.
The apex court said the complainant had filed a similar FIR against an assistant professor of Osmania University, where she was studying.
Perusing her chats on phone, the top court said the woman has admitted that she was manipulative and was trying to “get a green card holder”.
“At one point of 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 on 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 behavioral pattern of the de-facto complainant who appears to be having manipulative and vindictive tendency,” the bench said.
The apex court said the accused was absolutely justified in panicking and backing out from the proposed marriage upon coming to know of the “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.
PTI
