Thane, Sep 2 A court in Maharashtra's Thane has acquitted a 34-year-old Maharashtra Security Force (MSF) constable in a case of rape, forced abortion and cheating lodged by a female colleague in 2020.
In an order passed on August 28, Additional Sessions Judge G T Pawar ruled that the prosecution failed to establish the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt, noting significant contradictions in the complainant's statements and establishing that the physical relationship was consensual rather than based on a false promise of marriage.
According to the prosecution, the victim and the accused both worked as MSF constables at Ghatkopar Railway Station when they entered into a romantic relationship in 2018.
The complainant alleged that Jadhav repeatedly established physical relations with her under the false promise of marriage, leading to a pregnancy that was allegedly aborted without her consent.
She lodged a complaint at the Mumbra police station on March 4, 2020, under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 376 (rape), 313 (causing a miscarriage without the woman's consent), 420 (cheating), and 506 (criminal intimidation) after learning that Jadhav had married another woman.
The court said, "From the statement of the informant, it is clearly established that the accused intended to marry her and she was refusing to marry him."
From the evidence on record, it appears that the relationship between the accused and victim was going on for more than one and half years. If at all the victim had any grievance that the accused was committing physical relations without her consent, she ought to have approached the investigating agency much earlier when she came to know about the refusal of marriage by the accused. But she continued to have sexual relationship with him even after knowing the fact that marriage of accused is fixed with another girl, which creates a doubt whether it was non consensual or on the pretext of marriage, the court said.
In the non-cognisable offence registered in January 2020 based on the complaint, she did not allege rape, but only levelled allegations of abuse and threat to kill, the court said.
Hence, the statements of the victim are contradictory to each other and destroys her own version of rape on the pretext of marriage. Hence, evidence of prosecution witness the informant is not reliable. Thus, the contention that there was false promise of marriage by accused is unacceptable, it added.
