New Delhi: The Supreme Court granted freedom Wednesday to a man from Punjab if he married the woman who lodged a rape complaint against him. The Supreme Court has given the man six months time to tie the nuptial. The apex court also said the man would be sent to jail if he breaks his promise to marry the woman. Incidentally the woman is in Australia at present.
“Remember, we will send you to jail if we find that your proposal to marry her is just a ploy to get rid of the criminal case against you,” an SC bench, headed by CJI SA Bobde, told the lawyer who represented the man while staying his arrest.
The bench, which also included justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, recorded the lawyer’s statement that the man’s parents had also signed an agreement. In it they have promised to get their son married to the woman, and pack him off to Australia.
The man is facing charges of rape and cheating on a complaint by the woman. The woman in her complaint said that she got into a relationship with the man because he promised to marry her.
The man and the woman met in Australia in 2016 where both were studying. While the woman belonged to a scheduled caste, the man was a Jat Sikh, an upper caste. In the FIR, the woman has said that the man convinced her to enter into a relationship with him. She said he had promised that he would convince his parents to accept their marriage.
In 2018, the man returned to Amritsar. The woman used to come to India to meet the man. Their relationship continued until July 2019 when the man told her that his parents were against their marriage. This prompted the woman to file a complaint with the NRI Wing of Punjab Police. After conducting a preliminary investigation an FIR invoking charges of rape and cheating under the IPC was lodged against the man.
The man claimed that the relationship was consensual. He sought protection from arrest but the Punjab and Haryana high court denied him relief. It took note of serious allegations by the complainant that he had threatened her he would publish photographs of her on social media if she did not withdraw the FIR.
Advocate Shakti Paul Sharma, appearing for the man Wednesday, presented before the bench a compromise deed. The deed stated that the two would be married within six months. It also said that the man would travel to Australia to live with the complainant.
The bench initially said it would grant bail only after he marries the woman. The lawyer, however, cited restrictions on flights from Australia to India due to COVID-19. The court then stayed the arrest of the man and also made the woman a party to the matter. The case will be heard next after four weeks.
